Kaabil

About the film

Kaabil (transl. Capable) is a 2017 Indian Hindi-language action-thriller film directed by Sanjay Gupta, written by Vijay Kumar Mishra, and produced by Rakesh Roshan under his banner FilmKraft Productions. The film stars Hrithik Roshan, Yami Gautam, Ronit Roy and Rohit Roy. The film’s soundtrack is composed by Rajesh Roshan. Principal photography began on 30 March 2016.

The film follows a blind dubbing artist who becomes disillusioned when his wife faces injustice and dies. He becomes a vigilante and decides to seek revenge against those responsible for his wife's death, while also dodging police with a cover that no one would believe a blind man can kill someone. Kaabil was released theatrically on 25 January 2017, and received mixed reviews from critics. Roshan was nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Actor for his performance at the 63rd Filmfare Awards.

Plot

Rohan Bhatnagar is a kind young man who has been blind since birth and works as an animation voice actor for a living. Through his friends, he meets Supriya, a working woman who is also blind, but proudly independent. The two fall in love and get married. One night, on their way back home after dining out, they are interrupted by Amit Shellar, a local goon and younger brother of Madhavrao Shellar, a well-known politician. He and his friend, Wasim, drunkenly misbehave with the couple, enraging Rohan. The next morning while Rohan is at work, Amit and Wasim sneak into the house and assault Supriya. A horrified Rohan immediately calls the police; officer Chaubey advises him to get his wife medically examined in 24 hours to prove the assault. While Rohan and Supriya are on their way to the clinic, they are kidnapped by Shellar's men and held captive for 36 hours.

After being set free, Rohan and Supriya are criticized by police for the delay in getting Supriya clinically examined, and are accused of being liars. Heartbroken, they return home. Supriya attempts to live normally but Rohan becomes silent and introspective, which hurts her. One morning, Rohan returns early from work to apologize to Supriya for not being as supportive as he should have, only to find her corpse, hanging from the ceiling fan. Madhavrao visits Rohan and reveals that his brother Amit assaulted Supriya not once but twice. Rohan finds Supriya's suicide note, which ascertains that Amit had assaulted her a second time; this second assault led to her suicide. Shattered, Rohan implies to officer Chaubey that he will avenge his wife's death, mocking Chaubey that he will know who did it but will be able to do nothing about it, just like he did nothing about Supriya's case.

Rohan uses his voice-modulating skills to lure the culprits to places that Rohan knows well. First, he tricks Wasim and hangs him, leaving Amit's handkerchief behind to frame Amit. He then lures Amit to the warehouse where he and Supriya were held captive for 36 hours. He finds Amit by scent, tying him down to be burned alive in an explosion. Chaubey suspects Rohan of Amit and Wasim's murders and puts him under house arrest. Rohan gets past the police with the help of his friend and calls Madhavrao to a building under construction that was to be Rohan and Supriya's new home. There, Rohan kills him and makes it look like a suicide. Rohan later relates the story to Chaubey: he made it look as if Amit killed Wasim, then Madhavrao committed suicide due to the pain of Amit's death. With no evidence against Rohan, a blind man, Chaubey stands helpless. After this, Rohan scatters Supriya's ashes in the sea.

Production

Sanjay Gupta announced the film in January 2016 with Hrithik Roshan portraying the lead role. Rakesh Roshan was confirmed to be producing the project under his production banner FilmKraft Productions Pvt. Ltd, with his brother Rajesh Roshan composing the soundtrack. Yami Gautam was confirmed to play the lead heroine while brothers Ronit Roy and Rohit Roy were confirmed to play negative roles in the film. Resul Pookutty was the sound designer, while the cinematography was handled by Sudeep Chatterjee and Ayananka Bose.

Principal photography commenced in Mumbai in March 2016. Filming was concluded in July 2016.

Release

Kaabil was released on 25 January 2017 worldwide, clashing with Raees. On 2 February 2017, Kaabil was released across Pakistan, becoming the first Indian film to be screened in Pakistan, post lifting of ban on Indian films after the 2016 Uri terror attack and its aftermath. It was released in Hindi along with its Tamil dubbed version titled Balam.

Following the good performance of the film at the box-office, the film was released on around 200 more screens in India, on 2 February 2017. Kaabil was released in China on 5 June 2019 but performed weakly upon its release.

A sequel is reportedly in development with Roshan set to reprise his role.

Reception

Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave the film 4 out of 5 stars and wrote, "On the whole, Kaabil is gripping, gut-wrenching and is likely to stay with you for a long time." The Indian Express gave the film 1.5 out of 5 stars and wrote, "Hrithik does all the heavy lifting and remains the only bright spot in this dispirited mess of a movie. He still has the moves. What he needs is a plot." Meena Iyer of Times of India gave the film 4/5 stars, noting that the movie seemed to be inspired by the 1989 movie Blind Fury and the 2014 Korean movie Broken. Iyer praised Roshan's performance as his "all-time best", and felt that the character Rohan was "vulnerable as a lover and menacing as a killing-machine". Sarita A. Tanwar of Daily News and Analysis gave 4/5 stars writing "Kaabil is old-school, emotional and forceful. And an absolute must for all Hrithik Roshan fans. And if you aren't his fan, you might feel differently after this film".

Key details