‘Cuttputlli’: Cast & Crew
Director: Ranjit Tiwari
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Rakul Preet Singh, Jitendra Rai, Sargun Mehta Dubey, Chandrachur Singh, Gurpreet Ghuggi, Hrishitaa Bhatt, Atul Sharma, Shahid Latief, Vinita Sharma, Asha Patel, Frina Mehta, Jai Patel, Sonal Simon, Sanjev Parma, Joshua Gill
Available On: Disney+ Hotstar
Duration: 2 Hours 14 Minutes
‘Cuttputlli’: Story
A girl is found murdered in a gruesome manner in the hills of Himachal Pradesh. Akshay Kumar, who had spent his last seven years writing a movie script around serial killers, leaves hope of becoming a film director and ends up landing a job in the police force. He figures out that the murder is not a single one and it has links to a previous murder and manages to establish a link between the cases. This leads him to realise that there could be a serial killer at work here. Soon, another couple of murders occur in the hills, one of which was a personal loss for Kumar. He becomes hell-bent on wanting to solve the murders and find out the serial killer. Will he be able to catch the killer before another girl gets butchered? Well, you’ll have to watch the movie to find out.
‘Cuttputlli’: Performances
Akshay Kumar has been giving a string of south remakes back-to-back. However, this is one worthy remake that he has picked up. Even though the entire story revolves around him and tries to feed his machoism, yet the story is quite powerful in itself to stand tall, and grab your attention. Kumar may be playing a character almost 20 years younger than his real-life age, yet, he manages to make the character his own with his quirks and funny mannerisms in varied instances.
Rakul Preet Singh starts off as an independent young school teacher, but pretty soon, her character is turned into nothing but just eye candy. Even though she gives one of the most important clues to solving the murders, she is never given the onus of the same and remains just as the hero’s love interest and nothing more.
Sargun Mehta, despite having a shorter screen time, manages to make the most of it. She stands tall against a powerful performer like Akshay Kumar and never flinches from the character. Her character arc is brilliantly written where she not only tries to undermine the rookie at the start but when she realises his potential, admits her mistake and accepts him wholeheartedly. The transition of her character’s emotional quotient is very well portrayed by Mehta onscreen.
Chandrachur Singh, who made a worthy comeback with ‘Aarya’, is totally wasted. Worst of all is that scene (Spoiler Alert) where he, being a senior police officer himself, begs and pleads with his brother-in-law, Akshay Kumar, who is much lesser in rank than him, to catch the killer. Why didn’t the death of his own daughter motivate the cop inside him to come back stronger and find new ways to nab the killer? A total waste of a cop character.
Hrishitaa Bhatt makes a comeback to acting after ages, and it will take you some time to digest the fact that she is playing an elder sister to Akshay Kumar. However, she barely has screentime to make an impact.
‘Cuttputlli’: Script, Direction & Technical Aspects
One thing director Ranjit Tiwari needs to be lauded for is to show the hero and his family are also vulnerable. Usually in such thrillers, you’ll always see random characters getting killed, and when someone close to the hero gets kidnapped, it is then that the hero finally manages to run from pillar to post and finally save his/her family member. (Spoiler Alert) Tiwari has actually shown that the hero’s family member can also get killed just like any other random victim.
Tiwari also manages to hold the script tight and respect the original script of ‘Ratsasan’. He has managed to make a worthy copy of the original where he has taken up frame by frame and managed not to make too many changes to suit his personal taste. That way, the good parts of the original remain and manage to give you the proper thrills.
Where Tiwari missed out on was in the climax. It was mighty rushed. The film gets over even before you actually soak in and understand the reason for the serial killer doing the murders.
Aseem Arora’s screenplay unnecessarily adds a romantic angle between Akshay Kumar and Rakul Preet Singh. Totally could have been skipped considering it’s a thriller. The whodunit factor ends up being comical in places because of this. Then there is the entire sequence about Akshay Kumar’s character wanting to be a filmmaker. Why couldn’t he have been a cop from the very first? The wannabe filmmaker angle didn’t do much to add to the story. It’s no ‘Drishyam’. Also, why make the entire sequence of becoming a police officer look so easy? It’s not that easy even if you’re the son of an ex-cop and the brother-in-law of another. Making the hiring process of police officials look so easy is utterly distasteful and wrong for all the real-life cops who’ve actually toiled for years and years to become police officials.
Rajeev Ravi’s cinematography manages to bring out the beautiful locales of Uttarakhand perfectly. Also, a part of the shoot seems to have happened in the UK, and Ravi’s work manages to seamlessly blend the different shoot locales so that for a viewer it doesn’t seem different. However, he has to be blamed for the terrible lighting of the climax. It's dark and considering you're watching at your home and not in a movie theatre, the entirety of the climax looks too hard to focus on. The lighting should have been done better so that audiences could have understood exactly what was happening and what was not.
Chandan Arora’s editing lags slightly in the middle, where there are a few unnecessary songs added up. That increases the length without doing much to the plot. The editing definitely could have been a bit crisper.
‘Cuttputlli’: Can Kids Watch It?
Yes
Outlook’s Verdict
Akshay Kumar’s Hindi remake of ‘Ratsasan’ is a worthy remake. While there are plot points left unanswered throughout the screenplay, and lots of opportunities of creating a thrill missed, but still, somehow, the overall murder mystery manages to hold on its own. You’re constantly on the edge of your seat wanting to see what’s going to happen next and keep the curiosity going. But the major drawback of ‘Cuttputlli’ is that it’s a remake of a mighty popular south film, ‘Ratsasan’, which is also currently available online. So firstly, many people would have already seen the original film, and those who wouldn’t have would actually prefer watching the original online rather than streaming this one online. Just looking at this movie without having seen the original, it’s indeed a worthy One Time Watch. I am going with 3 stars.
