Kaabil movie review: Hrithik Roshan is out for revenge

- January 24, 2017

Kaabil movie review: Even in a Hrithik Roshan, Yami Gautam film, it can't be all song and dance. This time, Hrithik is out for vendetta but can the Sanjay Gupta film be true to its visually-challenged protagonist?

He is a dubbing artiste, she is a pianist. They are both happy-go-lucky with a thirst to live life to the fullest. They are both blind too but the way Hrithik Roshan and Yami Gautam play the leads of Kaabil, it is more incidental than the central focus of the film. It is as if the love that envelopes them is enough to defeat the odds life has thrown at them. They romance on Rajesh Roshan’s songs, prove their dancing chops in Mon Amour and Hrithik even gets to play Amitabh Bachchan for a bit.

Kaabil is a Sanjay Gupta film, and in his films, the perfect cannot last for too long. The idyllic world of Hrithik and Yami is destroyed once Rohit Roy and Ronit Roy’s baddies enter it. Yami’s Supriya will fade out of the life of Hrithik’s Rohan, leaving a vacuum that only revenge can fill. To be fair to him, he tries the police first but the hands of men in khakhi are tied for the Ronit plays a politician, a corrupt one at that. Hrithik will unleash mayhem in a style which is reminiscent of a typical Sanjay Gupta film.

In that sense, Kaabil is a formula film the likes of which director Gupta and producer Rakesh Roshan have tried time and again. Seems to be inspired by Hollywood’s Blind Fury (1989) and Korean hit Broken (2014), the film pits its blind protagonist as a man on a mission, out to destroy the people who have destroyed him.

The focus is on action, done the Sanjay Gupta way. Read that as dull, dark tones and a lot of blood. The focus is on Hrithik Roshan’s face and his blank eyes. The film’s music, despite the retreaded Haseeno Ka Deewana and Kissi se Pyaar Ho Jaaye, fails to actually stay with you for long. Urvashi Rautela’s sizzling dance number probably will.