Kadak Singh Review: Interesting story let down by poor and confusing execution despite good performances
Kadak Singh Movie Rating: 1.5 Stars
Finally watched Kadak Singh movie on Zee5 Premium. Let’s focus on the complete details, story, positive/negatives and at last my personal view on this movie.
Cast: Pankaj Tripathi, Jaya Ahsan, Parvathy Thiruvothu and Sanjana Sanghi
Director: Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury
Release Date: 8th December 2023 on Zee5
Story: Movie revolves around AK Shrivastav (Pankaj Tripathi) who is an officer with the Department of Financial Crimes (DFC) and suffering from retrograde amnesia. He allegedly tried to commit suicide while in office while investigating a chit-fund scam and failed at it and suffers from short term memory loss as a result. He remembers some things, though has forgotten much.
AK doesn’t remember his daughter Sakshi (Sanjana Sanghi) when she visits him. He remembers he has a small son Aditya Varun Buddhadev who has now grown up and is in drug rehab. He doesn’t remember that his wife Mimi (Khushboo Kamal) has passed away due to an accident in the kitchen for which he somewhere holds Aditya responsible. Because of his strict nature, his kids refer to him as Kadak Singh.
He has a lover Naina (Jaya Ahsan) who teaches literature. Everyone who comes meet him, be it his junior officer Arjun (Paresh Pahuja) or his boss Tyagi (Dilip Shankar) tried to tell him his or her versions of events which led to his suicide attempt.
However, Sakshi is convinced, her dad would never attempt to end his life. He tries to sift the truth from the falsehoods while desperately trying to jog his own memory about it. His companion among all this is the nurse assigned to him Mimi (Parvathy Thiruvothu) with whom he harmlessly flirts sometimes and who later saves him from an assassination attempt. What is the truth about AK’s attempted suicide?
Positives
1. Performances
2. 1st half
3. Story
Negatives
1. Length
2. 2nd half
3. Climax
4. Direction
5. Screenplay
Durgesh Tiwary’s View: When I watched the trailer of this film planned to watch this movie in free time as trailer looks interesting and loved Pankaj Tripathi performances in his previous movies.
An officer of the Department of Financial Crimes is trying to solve a chit-fund scam case after being diagnosed with retrograde amnesia. He relies on listening to different perspectives on who he actually is and how he landed up in the hospital where he is being treated.
Kadak Singh story is compelling, but screenplay doesn’t do justice to the promising plot in hand. All characters don’t get the required screen time and also, the narrative gets complicated. The first part of the story plays out well, establishing that Srivastava is a decidedly unpleasant character and bad father, with dubious morals and grey shades to his character. The narrative flits between past and present to unravel more details of his life, and the case he’s been working on. On paper, the premise is intriguing and worthy of an edge-of-the-seat crime thriller. However, the execution woefully falls short of achieving that end. The telling and retelling of the same events make the storytelling repetitive and tedious. Pankaj Tripathi plods through it all, with his trademark gentle smile and benign personality firmly in place.
Twists and turns keep the plot going, but most of them are quite predictable and you can see them coming a mile away even the final suspense. The ultimate reveal of the suspense of the story happens without any flourish, thus blunting its effect further. The story is also curiously devoid of any sentiment and feeling. Most times, the narrative comes off as dispassionate. The constant back and forth of the storyline adds to the dissatisfaction. A significant drawback is the second half, where the director loses control of the narrative. Casting choices present another drawback as the director fails to fully exploit the potential of lead actor Pankaj Tripathi.
Overall, movie film that fails to come true to its potential. It has an interesting and an intriguing film that could have been more impactful had the middle portions not been sluggish. My view on this movie Not Recommended.
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