Kennedy

One word.. Beautiful.

I was fortunate enough to watch this movie yesterday at London Indian film festival. Will reveal nothing about the story here as words are different to the actual vision. Director Anurag kashyap has poured his soul into making this craft and when that happens , It goes straight into your heart. It's deep. It's a movie that makes you question about yourself ? As the intro says ," Rahul bhat is Kennedy. That itself speaks alot. He has done such a great job that no one else could be Kennedy. Such a versatile actor that spoke 1000 words through his eyes. Sunny Leone as Charlie was a delight to watch. She was fabulous. Infact the casting was done very cleverly and every character leaves an impact on you. Background music was so brilliant. This movie is one of the best ones in many years and I hope it gets recognized. Thank you to the whole team for creating magic on screen.

I was surprised by how good this movie turned out to be. I had read the initial reviews that came out of MAMI screening and the response was mixed, which made me believe that this is another of those hit-and-miss movies from Kashyap. But by the end of this movie, I was truly thoroughly impressed. This is Anurag Kashyap in prime form! It brought to mind the brilliance of the director who gave us Black Friday and Ugly. The basic storyline is simple - a cop presumed dead does the dirty deeds of a corrupt police commissioner while seeking revenge. Set in the covid period in Mumbai, the movie includes sharp commentary on the systemic malaise of those times. This is a trademark of AK's filmmaking. Right from Shool/Satya days, he would borrow generously from the socio-political environment and include it in his movies. That was his way of his movies being a chronicle of the times they were set in. I always thought that this technique worked brilliantly before the advent of social media because in late 90s and 2000s it was amusing as well as rare to see real life being captured so well in movies. But I felt the same didn't technique doesn't work in recent times. For instance, when I watched Mukkabaaz in 2017 and saw the cow vigilantism used as a plot device, I found it off-putting. Not because it was untrue but because of an overdose. We were anyway being bombarded about gaurakshaks and the accompanying horrors every minute on WhatsApp, Facebook, TV channels, must we watch the same thing in a movie as well? I wasn't thrilled. But that was then. When I revisited the movie few years later (when thankfully cow vigilantism had become lesser and wasn't occupying headlines) the movie and the plot device seemed more palatable. The same I feel is true for Kennedy. Its core plot involving an A-list businessman and an explosive-laden car in his property would have been too recent to engage in 2023. As were all the covid references and the conversations around bade papa and bade saab's misdemeanors. But watching it in 2025 is a different experience. Now, one can watch that incident purely from an audience's pov. Earlier it would have pulled you out of the movie's world and brought you back to the real world. This I think is a major factor that I hope AK becomes aware of.

Moving past that and coming to the movie's brilliant aspects. And there are several. Starting with RAHUL BHAT. Man, what a performance! Understated but super effective. He lives and breathes the life of a dead man walking. A machine on the outside and a man filled with deep regret on the inside. Amir Aziz is another standout feature. His words stay with you and fill the movie with depth and despair. The cinematography is terrific. Most of the supporting cast does well. The actor who plays Saleem (Aamir Dalvi) stood out for me. Loved his menacing presence and dialog delivery. Sunny Leone is an interesting casting choice and she does decently, except in some initial scenes. I also enjoyed the roommate and the other acquaintances that come to meet Kennedy after his dreadful acts. AK is a Dostoevsky fan and it shows and how. Well done. Finally, the personal story is what elevates this movie and makes it stand out from a regular cop thriller. It is clear as day that Anurag carries the pain of being an absent father and regrets the trauma he caused. The failure of his marriage to Aarti Bajaj and their bitter parting have been a feature of his movies, most prominently in Ugly. The final scene is deeply moving and a great cinematic ending. An ending that is a cinephile's dream. I have sorely missed Indian movies that feature great endings. Most are happy to end by just tying up loose ends or problems getting solved or simply a happy ending preceded by a lecture to the audience. This ending is a throwback to the great ones we have seen in classics. Loved it. In summary, Kennedy is a noir classic. It will only get better with time. I think it belongs to the league of classics like Alan Pakula's Kluke. I was sorely disappointed by Fincher's The Killer, only to be saved and entertained by Kashyap's Kennedy.

A presumed-dead ex-cop tangled in a web of illegal activities alongside other corrupt officers, whilst secretly driven by personal vendetta, might not scream 'novelty' from a narrative point of view.

However, the execution and the way the story unfolds deserve high praise. The Neo-noir aesthetics, with their striking reds and blues, paired with a meticulously crafted sound design and background music, create a gritty as well as captivating crime thriller.

Rahul Bhat shines as the lead, delivering a powerful performance as 'Kennedy.' The supporting cast, with the notable exception of Sunny Leone, brings sincerity to their roles.

In Sunny's case, I feel, her periodic maniacal laughter and dialogue delivery fell short of matching the tones and caliber of the overall ensemble, compounded by her struggles with speaking Hindi and a limited range of expressions.

I took a liking to the political jabs and the clever commentary on the COVID pandemic as well, especially the statements regarding the blatant exploitation of commoners by those reigning in power.

That said, a stronger focus on the father-daughter relationship and more polished editing in the second half could have elevated the impact of the story a few levels up!

Kashyap is back in form and probably another one of his movies to get banned or heavily cut by CBFC. When it started, even though there were clear indications of some backstory, the way it began with the almost mundane way of killings, it reminded me of Fincher's The Killer. There was also the humour throughout the movie without losing the darkness. But once everything started to flesh out, it turned out to be much more. When the film wants us to see the world through the emotions of a psychopath(!) it clearly draws the picture and spells out the bigger evil that even hangs above these executioners all the time. The film doesn't spell out the name of the person or the party but essentially does it by describing everything they do and how even with so much money and power, the vilest villains of the movie including the protagonist, are still not evil enough to succeed in their endeavors. The film is essentially Kashyap's exercise in trying to understand the most damned villains in a desperate attempt to exist without fear in this country. This film is a political plea in the guise of a crime thriller.

Finally, I watched Anurag Kashyap's neo-noir crime thriller, Kennedy, thanks to the New York Indian Film Festival. Oh man, how I have missed this side of Kashyap's storytelling.

Kennedy, like Ugly and Raman Raghav 2.0, delves into the dark and sinister underbelly of corruption deeply ingrained within the Indian police force. It also serves as a stark reflection of the bleak truth of human greed.

Rahul Bhat delivers a captivating performance as Kennedy, an insomniac ex-cop presumed dead who has now become a covert contract killer working for corrupt forces in post-lockdown Mumbai. Following his performance in Ugly and Black Warrant, Bhat delivers yet another compelling performance.

Supporting him are actors such as Sunny Leone, Prammod Sanghi, and Shrikant Yadav, who all delivered solid performances.

However, the one performance that truly stood out for me was by Abhilash Thapliyal. Beyond the crime narrative, the movie also explores the profound impact of mental health on individuals and their surroundings, and his role in the movie is critical to narrate that. It sheds light on the consequences of mental health issues and how they affect not only the person but also the people they interact with.

I thoroughly enjoyed Kennedy. It made me so happy to see an Anurag Kashyap movie in the theaters after so long, but it is also immediately made me sad that such a good movie hasn't released in India and is stuck in limbo. Such a loss of Indian cinema.