KAABIL - Watch it just for the impressive blind acts and an emotionally likeable first hour, as you already know about the rest, unexpectedly conceived in a twist-less filmy manner. (Review by Bobby Sing)

Beginning with an undeniable fact, there was nothing you didn’t know about KAABIL before its official release as the promotion clearly revealed it all displaying a solid confidence and now the only excitement left was in witnessing Hrithik’s blind act and the way he takes the revenge killing the ruthless rapists.

Ideally, that isn’t any recommended or appreciable feature for a crime-thriller, when the viewer already knows the script and now just has to see HOW instead of WHAT in return of his money spent. Plus a film has to be exceptionally good in this case, essentially equipped with a few undisclosed shocks and surprises for the viewer moving much beyond the obvious or already known details.

Unfortunately KAABIL doesn’t turn out to be any nail-biting revenge drama on the similar grounds as it neither has any twists nor any pleasant surprises in its final hour missing the much required crescendo. It confidently begins as a soft and sweet romantic story of a blind couple and then turns into a simplest revenge saga post intermission, forgetting everything else (even the supporting actor along the lead, his only close friend). Moreover it also doesn’t have any solid portrayal of villains too, missing another important ingredient of this particular genre.

The film completely revolves around the blind Hrithik alone and that’s exactly where it works due to the actor’s individual skills making an instant connect of sympathy, especially when he decides to do it on his own fooling the police officers. A differently abled central character always finds an emotional link with the audience and KAABIL smartly exploits the same despite being quite weak in its execution of revenge and the planned killings in its second half.

So for me it’s just Hrithik Roshan who strongly scores in this completely predictable and simplistic film but nobody else. Yami Gautam is no doubt one of the prettiest faces in the industry with a lot of untapped talent, but the girl is weirdly getting exactly similar roles in almost every project where she is there in the initial moments and then has to die soon disappearing from the rest of the film. Yami looks beautiful and acts well as the blind girl too, but I would really like to see her in a much more lengthy and meaningful role as seen in VICKY DONOR. Both Rohit and Ronit Roy as the two bad men fail to rise above the routine looking like the typical villains from the 90s whereas Narendra Jha does leave a mark as the investigating police officer. Having a minimal supporting cast, no one else gets any significant scenes in the film including Suresh Menon, Akhilendra Mishra and Girish Kulkarni.

As a result, it eventually comes down to the lead star alone, who once again delivers his best with sincerity and conviction winning over the majority of viewers. Hrithik truly makes the portrayal look like highly believable along with a supporting Yami and together they both give you a sweet and adorable first hour becoming the highlight of the film. Later as the action takes over, Hrithik gets back in full control and you just keep watching him on the screen ignoring many major shortcomings.

Coming to the technicalities, a Sanjay Gupta film is always rich in this particular department and thankfully he doesn’t go for any of those tinted colours this time giving it a natural feel. But I was really surprised finding some easily catchable or tacky kind of digitally added backdrops in many of its crucial scenes.Though the camerawork is very fine along with an apt background score in the two different halves, yet I couldn’t find any highly melodious or memorable track in the music by one of my favourite composers Rajesh Roshan. Also it was really awful to hear an unnecessarily remade and noisy version of “Saara Zamana” (coming just after the interval) strangely recreated with the approval of the man himself.

As a director, Sanjay Gupta is probably the most stylish visualizer in the industry, who always likes to be experimental and inventive deeply following the Korean and World cinema (without making any official acceptance) except his last average film titled JAZBAA. I personally loved to watch his works ignoring ‘the inspired fact’ (in the early years) and may be his inclination towards the intense and shocking Korean thrillers might be the reason, I was actually looking forward to a much matured, well-crafted and killer kind of second half focusing on the three planned murders.

However, what KAABIL offers in its second half is a too easily conceived, executed and written revenge drama that doesn’t turn out to be as believable and enjoyable as expected. It keeps on going with a visibly questionable ease, which can simply be phrased as ‘too convenient’ for a blind man operating without any kind of help from an able friend or associate. Personally speaking there was a much superior similar kind of final hour in APPU RAJA or the recent I, that too had a differently abled protagonist setting the accounts straight.

Besides, the film has such big loopholes in its writing and onscreen execution that it doesn’t seem to be a Sanjay Gupta and Rakesh Roshan film post some initial good romantic moments. For instance, where the kiddish insertion of voiceover skills used to fool everyone involved becomes repetitive after a while, one wonders how even the shrewd politician too starts responding like a kid after a single phone call without getting it confirmed. A rape victim commits suicide but there is no postmortem done or police involved in the case and there are no neighbours too (quite astonishingly) disappearing after a song and just one scene.

In short, KAABIL successfully manages to score due to Hrithik alone and you may like it if its only Hindi films for you and nothing else, either from our own Indian regional language movies or the World cinema. However for friends who are well versed with much more quality movies being made both in the country and abroad, this is just another of those masala Hindi entertainers completely dependent and riding high on its exceptionally talented lead STAR.

Rating : 2 + 1 (with the additional one just for the guts and courage of Hrithik Rohsan going for such an off-beat, experimental and risky role of a blind.)

Note : Regarding inspirations, though not having any direct relationship, the film does remind you of many similar revenge thrillers like a Korean film BROKEN (2014/put a daughter in place of a wife) and our own MERA JAWAAB (1985/just add a blind angle to it).
        But the most closest it makes you recall is QATL (1986) featuring Sanjeev Kumar as the blind husband going for a smartly planned murder post an unexpected betrayal. (Do watch it as a must since it is indeed a fine underrated film ending on an interesting note.)