Can hrithick hack it, in kaabil, a film that gives him every opportunity to gain lost ground? That’s a toughie. Because apart from the leading man, there is not one thing to keep us with the film Two strands knit kaabil. One is the romance between two people who cannot see. Rohan( Hrithik Roshan) and Supriya( yami Gautama) meet on a blind date, dreadful pun fully intended, and discover feelings that will last a lifetime. Except a tragedy befall the couple, and then things gone away.
The other track is rape-and-revenge, a combo not seen for a while in big budget Bollywood with their pretty, safe love stories. Kaabil dusts it off and resurrects it, but brings back every single cliche that goes with the territory: lascivious hoods, intimidating netas, and cops on the take.
The challenge with doing a film whose beats are stacked from its opening frame is to insert surprise. Instead, kaabil plays it strictly by the numbers, and you can see everything coming from a mile.
Yami Gautam’s act includes a permanent unblinking wide-eyed stare. She is light on her feet but seems to have got caught in a series of no account roles after Vicky donor. Rohit and Ronit Roy are the baddies, and both come off as they have been instructed to: the former a goonda, 4th the latter a grim, glowering local heavyweight.
Hrithik does all the heavy lifting and remains the only bright spot in this dispirited mess of a movie. He still has the movies. What he needs is a plot.