Cinemaah

Justice Is Blind

It would be safe to assume that nobody will see Kaabil for the plot-- the promo gives away enough. So then the old-fashioned script should be engaging enough to keep audiences hooked. Unfortunately, Sanjay Gupta (picking the idea from Blind Fury and scenes probably from some from Korean films) makes a leaden, sleep-inducing film. 

 What is so baffling that the idea of a man taking revenge for the rape and suicide of his wife-- that was done to death in the eighties and nineties-- even made it to the screen in 2016.  Hrithik Roshan must have been tempted to play a blind man, but that's about all the novelty there is in the film. 

A meeting between the visually challenged voice artist Rohan (Hrithik Roshan) and pianist Surpriya (Yami Gautam) is arranged by an absent Mrs Mukherjee and the two fall in love in the matter of minutes, even though they are sure they don't want to marry because "two negatives cannot make a positive" (who writes lines like this!) It has already been established that Rohan does not treat his lack of sight as a handicap and has a particularly well-developed sense of smell and hearing.  

 After the remarkably economical opening scenes, Gupta wastes a lot of time over a boring romance and foreshadowing in thick layers. Then the two get married and in a matter of days, she is raped by Amit (Rohit Roy), the brother of the local leader Madhavrao Shellar (Ronit Roy), and his friend (for some reason it is specified that Wasim is a Muslim butcher's son). The corrupt cops (Narendra Jha, Girish Kulkarni), far from solving the crime, add to the couple's trauma. Inexplicably, a friend who is otherwise hanging around all the time is nowhere to be seen in the time of crisis. 

In a cringeworthy scene, Supriya tells Rohan that she is now unworthy of him and in the next she commits suicide. Rohan swears revenge and it's no spoiler to reveal that he achieves it. But for characters going through such unimaginable suffering, there is not a moment of genuine emotion that would move the viewer--everything is so loud and overdone. 

  

Hrithik Roshan (looking strangely puffy) bravely tries to make something of the role, but soon resorts to hamming; he is also surrounded by supporting actors who do nothing to help. Yami Gautam has a toothpaste ad look throughout her brief role. The Marathi accent put on by the Roy brother is painful to hear. Kaabil must also get the dubious distinction of having the worst item number possible and Rajesh Roshan mangling his old hit, Saara zamaana. 

Once Upon A Time In Gujarat

Of the three leading superstars in the Hindi film industry today, it is to Aamir Khan’s credit that he facilitates and participates in films with a positive social message. Salman Khan’s films are maturing too, so it is disconcerting to say the least to watch Shah Rukh Khan act in a film about a gangster and try to lend him a kind of respectability.

Rahul Dholakia, who made the courageous Parzania, probably tried to make a film about the repercussions of alcohol prohibition in Gujarat. (Hollywood is still nostalgic about crime in the Prohibition era of the 1920s). But then a superstar steps in, big production houses get involved and before a director knows it, his film has romance (Mahirah Khan as the love interest), songs, an item number (Sunny Leone) and an unabashed braggadocio. Maybe every star wants to do aDeewar or Nayakan once in his career, pretend on screen that the despicable character he plays is actually a saintly Robin Hood, whose heart beats for his people. So what if Raees, the protagonist of this film, sells illicit liquor? He also buys sewing machines for the mohalla women, and at times of curfew empties out his safe to buy food for the town.

This one is extra messianic, he wants to set up a ideal township; when he stands for elections, he wins. When a politician wants to take out an anti-booze procession via his area, the women come out to roll bottles into the street to halt the vehicles in their tracks. 

Of course, when there is Shah Rukh Khan declaring “Koi dhanda chhota nahin hota,” and living up to his reputation of having “Baniye ke dimaag aur Miyanbhai ka daring” then where is the question of even mildly criticizing the consumption of alcohol or looking at a hooch tragedy that takes place so often in our country? In Dholakia’s Fatehpura, everyone from schoolkids to postmen supply booze in a dry state, under the noses of corrupt cops and politicians on the take.

The one honest cop Jaideep Majmudar played by Nawzuddin Siddiqui with scene-stealing flair, is constantly transferred by the minister.  Raees’s downfall, the film suggests, comes not due to crime and mass murder, but his generosity and trust in the wrong people.

Raees is supposed to be fictional, but based on the life of a notorious Gujarat bootlegger and gangster Abdul Latif,  real incidents suitably glamorized or twisted to make Raees look like a grand hero.

The opening voiceover claims that the liquor trade in Gujarat is worth a mind-boggling figure in thousands of crores, which was made possible by Raees. Really? And that’s an achievement to be proud of?

The film may be well made, and a blockbuster at the box-office, but it is not the kind of film one expects from Rahul Dholakia or Shah Rukh Khan.