Do the visually impaired hear what we can’t hear? Do they feel what we can’t feel? Do they see much more than what we see? And can they do much more than what we think we can?
Kaabil has both a winner and a thriller of an idea on paper. A blind man embarks on a mission of revenge, and his weakness proves to be his biggest strength — after all, can anyone ever think that a man who has been blind all his life dare pull off crimes so cold and calculating?
Rohan Bhatnagar (Hrithik Roshan), a man horribly wronged by the apathy of a system blinded by power and corruption, chalks out a bloody game of vendetta when his wife Supriya (Yami Gautam) is first raped and then made to face humiliation after humiliation, prompting her to give up on life one day. Broken and battered, Rohan — whose other faculties are heightened, perhaps to make up for his lack of vision — rises to take matters into his own hands, crafting a tale of vengeance that has its roots in the Korean thriller Broken and closer home in many a Bolly revenge saga — Aakhree Raasta to Ghajini.
Starting off slow — the romance between Rohan and Supriya, though sweet, takes time to get off the ground — Kaabil manages to keep the viewer more or less invested and engaged, especially post-interval when director Sanjay Gupta plays the thriller card. Rohan, a dubbing artiste, employs both technique and talent to carefully craft his revenge, his mind executing one bloody crime after another, but his hands rarely getting dirty.
Gupta, the man behind thrillers like Kaante and Zinda, has heavily borrowed from the Korean DVD rack for most of his films, but he manages to imbue Kaabil with a strong emotional core, making your heart go out to Rohan and Supriya — a young couple in love, their dreams of a life together snuffed out in a matter of minutes. Gupta also does well in keeping the thrill alive in Rohan’s game of revenge — crimes seemingly simple are executed far more cleverly by a blind man, driven by the idea that he sees with his eyes shut what we can’t with our eyes open.
But does that mean Kaabil guarantees enough bang for your buck? Not quite. The plot has one loophole too many — the crime in itself is too convenient and the revenge game is straight-up blood and gore without twist or layer. The cat-and-mouse game doesn’t unfold at the breakneck speed one would have expected of a thriller.
And the film staggers in parts, especially when it comes to the bad men. The Roy brothers — Ronit and Rohit — don’t have the presence or power to be formidable opponents to Hrithik, with Ronit faring slightly better in his chilling politician act than Rohit’s one-dimensional character.
It’s the other Bengali boys — Sudeep Chatterjee and Ayananka Bose — who score big. From the sepia-tinted rooms bathed in afternoon light to the bloodied streets, from that single tear drop from Hrithik’s eye to Yami’s spontaneous smile, Kaabil is shot beautifully. Another big plus? Yami’s easy screen presence makes Supriya a flesh-and-blood character you invest in.
But what makes Kaabil worth a watch is Hrithik. The actor lets go of the usual hero trappings to play an ordinary man in extraordinary circumstances, almost fooling you into believing that he really can’t see. And even as the streets get bloody and the bodies pile up, the man continues to look dishy. Which, though it goes completely against the grain of the film, isn’t a bad thing <*wink*>.
Yes, revenge is a dish best served as Hrithik.
Priyanka Roy
The best thing about Kaabil is.... Tell t2@abp.in
