Kadak Singh

Are you a cinephile like me who has, at some point or another, rewritten/reshot/recut a movie in your head right after watching it? If you are, you'd probably do the same after watching "Kadak Singh" too.

Even with an acclaimed director, an award-winning editor and a talented BGM composer working on this film, I fail to comprehend how a story with such potential could go so wrong on screen. We could've had a taut, darkly humorous thriller made up of a plethora of mysterious and intriguing characters (played by great actors) had the narrative and the editing allowed the same.

Disappointing. Frustrating.

This may have seemed like an interesting premise, but the execution is anything but. The actors, especially Tripathi and Thiruvothu who can both be relied upon to give us joy, are comprehensively let down.

The role that Pankaj Tripathi plays does not push him out of his comfort zone but he does just enough to hold the film together. The actors around him - Jaya Ahsan, Sanjana Sanghi, Dilip Shankar and Paresh Pahuja - have largely reactive roles, confined as they are to closed spaces physically and creatively. Not outright humdrum, Kadak Singh would have had far greater tensile energy had its edges been sharper.

The film's momentum picks up in the last half hour as it connects all the dots and Srivastava closes in on the main culprits of the financial scam and the mystery behind his colleague's suicide. But by then one may have already guessed some of the suspects in the game. However, on the whole 'Kadak Singh' does qualify as a decent one-time watch over the weekend.

Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury's movies are famous for their family dramas. This is the first time I have seen any of his thriller movies. But the thriller did not go well.

The first reason is that thrillers have a pace that is missing here. The director has lost the momentum of the movie by giving more importance to the acting. The second reason is that the ending of the movie is very predictable. The last scene is similar to Sharadindu Banerjee's writing.

Pankaj Tripathi's acting is good but doesn't quite go with the character. Jaya Ahsan's performance was very short. Comparatively Sanjana and Parvaty's performances deserve praise.

Two songs in the movie are very good with Shantanu Maitra's music. Arghyakamal Mitra's work is good in this movie like all movies.

The only reason I started watching the movie was because the lead actor is one of the few whose acting I respect.

The movie keeps you grasped till the end (not the Breaking Bad kind, but fairly) although the end was done all of the sudden. It felt like they went short of funds, or realised that its already reached two hours and needed to end :)

Pankaj Tripathi kept his promise and lead the movie decently, the script could definitely have been better. Thankfully it was not the Hero, Heroine, Romance, Villan kind (I usually don't watch the trailers of a movie).

Definitely one time watch, when you have time to kill.

Spoiler Alert: The film is based on chit fund scam and Pankaj Tripathi tries to solve it but looses his memory and then tries to recollect it by listening to various stories from everyone's perspective. Story and screenplay both are very weak. Sometimes you would be confused whether you are in present or in the past story of someone. How he solves in end is also not very convincing and abrupt. The scam could have been told in some more detail. Other actors have good role like Sanjana and Bengali actress but overall movie revolves around and is borne by AK Srivastava. Just a time pass watch nothing so great about this movie.