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Luv Films, T-Series Films and Vishal Bhardwaj Films’ Kuttey (A) is the story of a few individuals who are eyeing a bank van carrying crores of rupees, like hungry dogs would eye their food.
A bank van is transporting tons of money from one point to another. Unknown to the others, three different groups want to usurp the crores of rupees from the van. Each individual or group wants the money for different reasons. Who finally gets the money, and what happens to the others is what the crux of the story is all about.
Gopal (Arjun Kapoor) and Paaji (Kumud Mishra) are police officers. They need money to get out of a terrible situation they’ve landed themselves in. Their senior officer, Pammi (Tabu), is thirsting for the money because she wants to improve her standard of living. Lovely (Radhika Madan), daughter of underworld don Narayan Khobre (Naseeruddin Shah), wants to lay her hands on the crores so that she can spend the rest of her life with Danny Dandekar (Shardul Bhardwaj) who, incidentally, works for her father. There is also Laxmi (Konkona Sen Sharma) who leads a group of Communist rebels who are on the run.
Aasmaan Bhardwaj has written an interesting story but one which moves on a single track. Although the story has layers in the sense that there are different groups at work, the objective of all the three groups is to lay their hands on the crores of rupees being transported from one point to another. Aasmaan Bhardwaj’s screenplay, with additional screenplay by Vishal Bhardwaj, is very interesting and it has been written in such a way that there is a lot of back and forth in the drama. This makes the drama interesting. But having said that, it must be added that the screenplay would appeal more to the class audience. Of course, the swear words, mouthed by the characters, hold appeal for the masses and front-benchers but the design of the drama is class-appealing. The climax could’ve been better and more exciting. Vishal Bhardwaj’s dialogues are raw and interesting. The use of four-letter words make the dialogues more entertaining.
Arjun Kapoor plays the role of corrupt police officer Gopal with complete conviction. He remains in character and does justice to his role. Tabu is very good as Pammi. The flourish with which she uses Hindi swear words is both, interesting and entertaining. Kumud Mishra is delightful in the role of Paaji. Radhika Madan does well as Lovely. Shardul Bhardwaj makes quite an impressive debut in the role of Danny Dandekar. Konkona Sen Sharma has her moments as Laxmi. Naseeruddin Shah does not get much scope to perform in the role of Narayan Khobre but he definitely lends weight to the character with his mere presence. Karan Nagar makes his presence felt as Sharad Khobre. Ashish Vidyarthi leaves a mark as Harry. Vijayant Kohli is natural to the core as Mamu. Jay Upadhyay is alright as Surti. Santosh Juvekar (as the police inspector), Anurag Kashyap (as the politician), Vijay Kumar Singh (as Shankar), Jagbir Singh Pannu (as the police inspector), Aasmaan Bhardwaj (as Rajiv Mishra), Brij Gopal (as Manohar), Ashwini Mishra (as the additional commissioner of police), Rewati Limaye (as Gopal’s wife) and Lavishka Gupta (as Gopal’s daughter) lend the necessary support.
Aasmaan Bhardwaj’s direction is good. The back-and-forth narration would appeal to the classes more than the masses. Although it is not an easy form of narration, Aasmaan has done justice to it. He has also extracted good work from out of his actors. The debut-making director definitely understands the craft very well. Vishal Bhardwaj’s music is appealing in the sense that the songs sound nice in the film but they are not too popular. Vishal Bhardwaj’s background music is pretty impactful. He has used the ‘Dan tan tan’ tune from his past film to great advantage. Lyrics (by Gulzar and Faiz Ahmed Faiz) are weighty. Farhad Ahmed Dehlvi’s cinematography is excellent. Action and stunt scenes (choreographed by Harpal Singh and Anton Moon) are very thrilling. Subrata Chakraborty and Amit Ray’s production designing is of a fine standard. A. Sreekar Prasad’s editing is sharp.
On the whole, Kuttey is an entertaining film. It is class-appealing and will, therefore, get more critical acclaim than box-office rewards because such films nowadays work better on OTT platforms. Family audience patronage will be less for the film. At the ticket windows, the well-written, well-made and well-enacted film will do limited business but collections will definitely pick up as the word of mouth among the class audience will be good.
Released on 13-1-’23 at Inox (daily 5 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay thru Yash Raj Film Distributors. Publicity: so-so. Opening: dull. …….Also released all over. Opening was not up to the mark at most of the places.