‘Kadak Singh’ review: Pankaj Tripathi's mischief isn't enough – Mint Lounge
In ‘Kadak Singh’, a promising thought is overtaken by pressured cleverness and unimaginative staging
AK Shrivastava (Pankaj Tripathi) is joint director on the Division of Monetary Crimes in Kolkata. His younger grownup kids have nicknamed their sole surviving guardian ‘Kadak Singh’ for his harsh and unloving methods. AK is assigned a case concerning a significant Ponzi scheme led by one ‘Agarwal’. Throughout the investigation, and after a horrible showdown together with his daughter Sakshi (Sanjana Sanghi), AK suffers an accident which lands him in hospital with retrograde amnesia. AK doesn’t recall his daughter, colleagues or his girlfriend Naina (Jaya Ahsan). His character sees a dramatic shift too.
By the course of the following few days and weeks, with the help of his colleagues, together with his boss Tyagi (Dilip Shankar), his protégé Arjun (Paresh Pahuja), and daughter Sakshi, AK begins making an attempt to piece again the lacking items from his reminiscences. On this misplaced reminiscences lie clues to the chit fund scamster Agarwal. Exterior the confines of the hospital room, his daughter and protégé are additionally making an attempt to unravel the thriller of the lacking tens of millions.
Based mostly on a narrative by Viraf Sarkari, Ritesh Shah (additionally screenplay and dialogues) and Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, and directed by Chowdhury, the screenplay takes a Rashomon-style narrative method, shifting backwards and forwards in time. AK has to sift reality from fiction to attach the dots. He’s playful when solitary together with his quirky nurse Miss Kanan (Parvathy Thiruvothu), assigned for his full-time care. She is his sounding board as he tries to unravel the puzzle of his accident and of the white collar crime he was investigating. Kanan is extra companion than care-giver, matching Tripathi’s mischief beat for beat, because the 128 minute movie plods to a conclusion.
Alongside the skilled conundrum, AK additionally overcomes his familial points, rebuilding relationships together with his fraught kids Sakshi and Aditya (Varun Buddhadev). Nevertheless, the story barely scratches the floor of human relationships, of the parent-child bond that’s fractured by shared, however unresolved, trauma, of discovering a brand new love later in life.
What the story and the manufacturing lack, the performances make up for. Whereas Tripathi could be very a lot in his consolation zone enjoying the impish affected person, it’s fascinating to see him carry out as the strict and unyielding AK. He retains you guessing whether or not he’s troubled or just faking it. Sanghi and Ahsan deliver a tenderness and sensitivity to their components because the loving girls aching for reciprocity of their affections from the chilly AK. An fascinating thought is overtaken by its personal cleverness and unimaginative staging. There’s solely a lot honest performances can do to paper over the failings and frivolity.
‘Kadak Singh’ is on ZEE5.
Adblock take a look at (Why?)
