Kadak Singh is that film which you cannot bring yourself to watch fully, even if it is a Pankaj Tripathi-starrer. Because even he, with all his on-screen charisma and prowess, cannot save this insufferable content that goes on and on for over two hours. By the end, one is only left trying to make sense of all that happened because Kadak Singh comes across as a khichdi - a mish-mash of a directionless psychological thriller cum family drama cum a half-baked love story that just doesn't make the cut.
Just a few days ago, during the promotion of the film, Tripathi spoke to THE WEEK over a call. When asked what he thought about the way the film has turned out, after having watched it completely, he agreed that it is "rather slow" but as an actor all he could do was to perform well and that he has done to the best of his capacity. "Yes, I know it is a bit slow but that's the way the film was meant to be. I have no say in it. My job is to act and I limit myself to that."
Unfortunately, Tripathi's natural and restrained performance is the only aspect worth talking about in Kadak Singh, which is otherwise a snooze fest. At the centre of this Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury directorial is an ace investigator, A.K. Srivastava (Pankaj Tripathi), who suffers anterograde amnesia. His daughter (Sanjana Sanghi) tries her best to revive his memory by narrating her side of the story, and so do others related to Srivastava - each one helps him recall the moments he spent with them, but nothing helps. And then gradually one by one pieces of the puzzle come together, but they do so in such a twisted, difficult-to-grasp manner, that one simply finds it hard to make sense of what's going on.
Interestingly, Tripathi tells us that it took barely a month to 40 days to finish shooting for this film, and this was followed by a few more days of edits and post-production work. Does this 'quickfix' explain the hotch-potch way in which the film has turned out to be? Streaming on Zee5, the film moves back and forth in time and space and keeps getting repetitive every now and then.
Kadak Singh is better avoided.
Kadak Singh movie cast: Pankaj Tripathi, Parvathy Thirvuvothu, Sanjana Sanghi, Jaya Ahsan, Paresh Pahuja, Varun Buddhadeva, Dilip Shankar, Jogi Mallang
Kadak Singh movie director: Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury
Kadak Singh movie rating: 1/5
