Kaabil Movie Review

Hrithik Roshan returns after a disappointing outing in ‘Mohenjo Daro’ last year, with his latest film ‘Kaabil’ where he plays the role of a blind man. The film, directed by Sanjay Gupta, also stars Yami Gautam as the female lead and the Roy brothers (Ronit, Rohit) are the lead antagonists. The promos of ‘Kaabil’ haven’t really caught on, which could actually work in favour of the film as the expectations are low. Given the competition from a big film like Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Raees’, ‘Kaabil’ absolutely needs to be a good film to make a mark at the all-important box office. Does it work? No better time to find out than now!

Story: ‘Kaabil’ is about a blind couple Rohan Bhatnagar (Hrithik Roshan) and Supriya Bhatnagar (Yami Gautam), who meet, connect and decide to get married. It’s all happy and beautiful, until tragedy strikes in the form of Amit Shellar (Rohit Roy) – the younger brother of powerful contractor Madhavrao Shellar (Ronit Roy). Without going into more details about the storyline, the rest of the film is about a blind man’s revenge.

Review: Kaabil starts slow and takes its own sweet time to get going. The 45 minutes are all about the Hrithik and Yami love story, after which the real action begins. And once it does, there is no stopping Kaabil as the revenge portions of the film get better with each new revenge that Hrithik takes. Sanjay Gupta’s direction is top notch, but it’s the writing (Sanjay Masoom and Vijay Kumar Mishra) that makes what was supposed to be a predictable film, very unpredictable with quite a few twists and turns.

Kaabil is also a classic Rakesh Roshan film, even though he isn’t the director here. It’s a formula that has worked for him so many times and Kaabil is no different. It sucks you into the happy world of the Bhatnagars and shocks you when the tragedy strikes for the second time. It peaks at the interval point and continues to surprise throughout the second half, culminating in a fantastic climax.

The negatives are few; the ‘Haseeno Ka Deewana’ song seemed like it was forced into the film to please the masses. Rajesh Roshan’s music is a major disappointment, but the background score by Salim–Sulaiman more than makes up for it. The film has been well-shot and the production-values are high, even though its a medium budget film.

Performances: Hrithik Roshan delivers the best performance of his career in ‘Kaabil’, even better than his career-best act in films like ‘Koi Mil Gaya’ and ‘Guzaarish’. Whether it’s his body language, eye movement, expressions or dialogue delivery, Hrithik is in top form in a role that could’ve gone horribly role with a lesser actor. Watch out for his mimicry scenes, that are possibly the most entertaining bits in the film, added to provide ’comic relief’ for the audience. Yami Gautam doesn’t have a major role to play, but she looks beautiful and acts very well. Ronit Roy is brilliant as the lead antagonist and perfectly cast. Ronit Roy is good. The rest of the supporting cast – Narendra Jha, Girish Kulkarni, Suresh Menon – are excellent too.

Overall, Kaabil is one of the best films of Hrithik Roshan’s career. It’s intelligent, engrossing, entertaining and it had the audience clapping when Hrithik takes revenge. It’s not exactly the kind of film that would win over the critics, but should find acceptance amongst every section of the audience.

Positives:

  • Hrithik Roshan’s outstanding performance, the film wouldn’t have worked without him.
  • The revenge portions. All of them very well handled.
  • Kaabil has a bit of everything; comedy, romance, action.
  • Clean film, which can be watched with the entire family, except very young kids.
  • The blind angle to the film is very well handled and is possibly its USP.

Negatives:

  • Music, the veteran Rajesh Roshan simply does not have it in him anymore to deliver a good album.

Rating: ★★★★½

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120 Comments

  • I told everyone here on indicine that they are highly underestimating sanjay gupta. He is not the best but definitely not the bad or worse stated by srkians..

  • indicine dont give explanation to those idiot blind fans of SRK…
    they tends to be like that only…today hrithik tweet that he is a student infront of Shahrukh…phir b ye logon ko samajh me nahi aa rahi hai.
    proud to be an hrithik fan…thanks indicine team for your honest review.
    Kaabil will definitely cross 100cr now after these positive buzz.

  • This review is very bais because I saw other critics bais they were all in favor of Raees but in this time in your website is in favor of Kabil. Furthermore, your website says that second half of Raees is not good but other critics give more credits to the second half. Please review movies for an unbiased experts because it is not fair with the actor.

  • Kaabil is not watching movie
    I watch in morning
    just average type movie
    I was crazy by critics last night
    but nothing new boring wast of time

  • If Distributers & exhibitors want then Kaabil will be a blockbuster. otherwise crap Raees super hit.

  • Plz spare us the horror, Indicine, Kaabil not so Kaabil to deserve 4.5 stars, strictly average & nothing we have not seen before! 2 stars were too much!

  • Hrithik Roshan has Class nd Mass…If a Superstar gives his best performance to a movie in his entire career…Then I expect KAABIL to become no less than a Blockbuster …I expect less from Kaabil…But i think it gives Bollywood their 2017 one of the best film..
    Proud to be HR Fan…We fans can’t hear bad things about our idols…We love them the most…

  • Movie is not that good which are said by critics. Sometimes feel boring. Not up to the mark. Dissapointed!!!! My rating = 2/5.

  • @indicine, if Raees doubles its collections against kaabil, then we will badly troll u .
    Haven’t learned your mistakes from Dangal ?????? After having watched saying we still believe sultan will remain HGMOTY.

  • Aliens should try to digest the sour truth that Raees is going to win this clash by a very very big margin !!!!!!!!!

  • @indicine after not publishing my 2nd comment you prove that you are biased to Kaabil and hrithik. I already sense that from your tweets on twitter from time to time that how you are promoting Kaabil. So, it is clear that we can already see which movie can get what type of review from your tweets in Twitter . The movie which you promote will definitely gets good reviews and the movie which you ignore will gets not good reviews or if gets also not that good despite if it is good. So , lose trust on your sites. And I am sure you will not publish my this comment.

  • Had decided to post my review by night but couldn’t hold my excitement, hence posting it now itself.

    Note : As far as reviews are concerned , I try to be brutally honest. However, I should be excused, if at any instance, I sound like a hardcore SRK fan instead of a neutral movie buff.

    So here we go :

    Instead of getting into the technical terms like screenplay and editing , I will directly come to the +ve’s and -ve’s of Raees.

    Positives :

    *******************************************************************
    Let’s discuss each segment in detail.

    1. Acting : SRK has nailed it and he is fantastic as usual. He proves it yet again that when it comes to play an antagonist he has no match. (Just look at his eyes when he kills Atul Kulkarni and Mooosa, intensity says it all. He is equally good expressing his resentment when Government declares his ambitious project as part of agricultural land). However, it’s Nawazuddin who steals the show. I remember when Raees trailer was out , many called Nawaz the major disappointment of Raees. Today I urge those people- just go and watch him. He is absolutely amazing and comes out as a winner when the movie gets over.
    There was nothing much to do for Mahira, but even in that small space (which was allocated to her), she disappoints and looks misfit for her role.

    2. Action :

    Action is “Desi” and typical of 70-80s era. You are bound to remember Big B and Dharam Paji while watching the action sequences as mostly they follow the same lines.
    Particularly, the fight sequences of Butcher market and one took place in truck are commendable.

    3. Songs :

    What I liked is none of the songs are misplaced. Every song follows a sequence and connects directly to the movie, so audience will never feel that songs are forced (as it happens with most of the movies now-a-days).
    I didn’t like Udi-Udi at the time of it’s release, but it looks absolutely mesmerizing on big screen.

    4. Dialogues :

    They are the heart of this movie. You will listen a lot of cheers and whistles with every dialogues. I was watching it in plex but I can imagine what euphoria these dialogues would have created on single screens.

    Negatives :

    *******************************************************************
    1. Story is not well connected :

    It seems Dholakia had tried everything which was available in his platter.
    He drives a number of parallel events/issues together, yet fails to establish a convincing connectivity between them. Examples of such individual segments are –

    Nawaz chasing SRK
    Corruption (in police department)
    Political conspiracy
    Secularism
    Communal riots
    Philanthropic aspect of Raees
    Plight of workers working in unorganized sector

    He deals with all the above topics and honestly, they all are shot well but he fails to bind them together at the end.
    So, though people enjoy these sequences thoroughly (honestly, each of these segments are well crafted individually) at the end they look confuse as what they have gained from Raees- the movie as whole.

    2. SRK-Mahira Chemistry :

    This is yet another drawback and at times their chemistry looks forced. I felt a heroine was added to this movie only to strengthen the commercial aspects of Raees else there was no need for a leading lady as such.

    3. Climax : It was surreal for me though it is ‘strictly’ individual opinion of mine.

    Conclusion :

    ************************************************

    Now comes the major question- whether one should watch or skip Raees.

    I would categorize the audience into three groups and pass my remarks accordingly.

    1. SRK haters : These are the people who always have a prejudice about SRK movies and they don’t even appreciate the positive aspects of his movies. If you are one among them, skip it as you will not like it at all.

    2. Neutral audiences :

    Please understand that the decision – whether to watch Raees or not- totally depends upon your ‘Taste’. Raees is not a Dangal, Bajrangi Bhaijan or CDI. If you love wholesome entertainment and want to be completely engaged and involved for two and half hours, then Raees is for you. I guarantee it you will never get bored and will thoroughly enjoy the movie.
    However, if you are expecting Raees to be a perfect crime thriller with major twist and turns then I would request you to give it a miss. Because story is quite predictable and what makes it enjoyable is the characterization and performance of the casts, specially SRK and Nawaz and not the story as a whole.

    3. SRK fans : Book your tickets if you have not already. You will love this badass yet sensitive Avatar of SRK.

    **************************************************************

    Rating : *** (3/5) (I always get afraid while allocating *(stars) to a movie because I am not good at it. Still trying my hands for the first time :P )

    ************************************************

    Commercial side :

    Raees is already a winner at single screens and it will attract large number of audience in coming days. What remains to be seen is, how it fairs at multiplexes. Though SRK’s presence has ensured fair occupancy and phenomenal advance booking for first three days, but will that continue when the actual weekend (Sat-Sun) peeps in, that’s the biggest question.
    If Kaabil is anything near to the reviews what it has received, it will put a formidable competition in front of Raees.

    My expectations : Will wrap up within 150 cr (HIT)

    @Indicine : Will post this review on three consecutive articles of yours. Please bear with me.

  • HRITHIK ROSHAN ALL THE WAY TO SWEEP ALL THE BEST ACTOR AWARDS THIS YEAR..!!!!

    Kaabil is carrying a Terrific WOM and will do huge from today evening and it will have a solid run.

  • Kaabil ____ _____________ a small film with a large heart…the mind sees all …..indicine team thanx very very much to give honest review of kaabil……..the feedbacks which I m reading whether of critics .or bellwood stars or genuine public who have seen the morning shows is just unthinkable. Man…wow wow …I don’t know when I have read such goosebumps reactions for any film since u started watching films…now I m 100% sure kaabil mania will struck India in its grip ..I was waiting for reviews of indicine and other genuine sites and also of public in morning shows…..one thing is sure now ..kaabil will be a hit at least. ..may be in between 80_ 100 chores. .but seriously after seeing such a great response to kaabil….I do hope it may earn 100+….best of luck to kaabil ….fingers crossed ..I m going to watch kaabil tomorrow both morning and evening shows with my family and friends. .wtout about u hrithikians .. time to rejoice ..for us for a much needed success even though critically acclaimed movie I do hope it to earn to its maximum potential..ohhhh..kaabil##

  • SRk is king…BOLLYWOOD MEANS SRK….

    Once the king always the king…..baki sab log bhi ye adat dal lo….

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