Director- Sandeep Reddy Vangha
Writer- Sandeep Reddy Vangha, Siddharha- Garima
Cast- Shahid Kapoor, Kiara Advani,Arjun Bajwa, Soham Majumdar, Kamini Kaushal, Nikita Dutta, Suresh oberoi, Adil Hussain
Is an unconventional love story where-in the protagonist is imaginably all things bad. He is impudent , reckless, impulsive, brash, unapologetic, has serious anger management issues, indulges in drugs, alcohol and women.
Directed by Sandeep Vanga, its a remake of his own Telugu version, “Arjun Reddy”.
The story revolves around , Kabir(Shahid),a topper in a top medical college of Delhi, who falls in love with a junior, Preeti ( Kiara), but goes on a reckless self destructive spree with alcohol and drugs when he is unable to marry her.
With a bombastic entry that’s greeted by lots of whistles and claps, Kabir is introduced to us in his ultra- bad avatar,Drugs, alcohol, women and crudeness of the highest degree.
In flashbacks, we see his pre-love avatar which wasn’t so good either. He’s an arrogant topper who is rude to his dean, bully to his juniors, and sets his heart upon a girl in a typical male chauvinist style.
But through all of this, there is something endearing about Kabir and that’s probably all Shahid’s hard work. He makes the character look good, gives him the bad boy with a good heart image in spite of all things bad.
Strictly not endorsing his behaviour or the way he “ attains” his love interest, I found it entertaining. There was a good content of humour (sometimes dark) in dialogues and situations.
Strictly keeping aside the bad aspects of our protagonist Kabir , the first half can be called highly entertaining and very unconventional. There could be many things that could be called crude or male chauvinistic.But the film holds your attention.
The second half that concentrates on his self destruction with alcohol and drugs is the part where the movie becomes repetitive. At a length of almost 3 hours, it became tiresome beyond a point. The medicos out there could be cringing the way our bad boy doc is shown to be top orthopaedic surgeon carrying out surgeries, all boozed out .
The movie owes a lot to Shahid and some of the cast. Shahid is someone whose intensity and hard work always reflects in his characters. In this new age version of Devdas, he shines. The fact that he didn’t look repulsive in spite of all he indulged in , is a feat for him.
Soham Majumdar , who plays his closest friend deserves a mention for the superb and realistic portrayal.
Kiara looked mesmerizingly beautiful in her absolutely bare faced looks. She looked every bit the kind of girl who would sweep a bad boy off the floor. She’s quiet and demure with almost nothing to say except in the climax.
Arjun Bajwa , as Kabir ‘s brother looked dapper and played well.
Suresh Oberoi ,seen after long, played Kabir’s father well.
Veteran Kamini Kaushal, as Kabir ‘s very intelligent, mature and philosophical grandma was a pleasure to watch.
Cinematography by Santhana Ravichandran was great with some very attention holding scenes .
Music was good and well suited to the situations and plot.
Editing was quite bad specially in the second half. The Movie needed a heartless chopping of at least 30 minutes.
This movie could and actually would trigger a raging debate on all wrong things portrayed. It was also not on the positive side of how women have been portrayed.
Believing that, not all things depicted are meant to glorified, I would just rate the movie on the entertainment factor.
It’s must watch for Shahid fans for his superb performance.
With an unconventional love story angle, good humour, music , it’s definitely a good one time watch for 18 yrs and above who do not mind being entertained without being judgmental.
Score 7 on 10