Cuttputlli

Cuttputlli (2022) : Movie Review -

Akshay Kumar and Rakul Preet star in the Hindi remake of Ram Kumar's Tamil thriller, titled "Cuttputlli". Except for the rhyming metaphorical title, the Hindi remake of Ratsasan has nothing better than the original, nor does it try anything different. Ratsasan has a few low-grade scenes due to budget issues, or maybe it's natural or common for Kollywood films. However, the amount of thrill and suspense is more than any other modern Tamil flick. That indeed works - for Tamil audiences, of course, if not wider. The Hindi dubbed version of Ratsasan has been watched by more than 40 million people on YouTube, and by almost double that number of people through torrents, telegram, and other movie download sites. The viewership amounts to more than the number of people who saw KGF Chapter 1 and KGF Chapter 2 in cinema halls. So the basic question is, was this remake really needed? The audience for the thriller genre is always low, and then there is an OTT release which hardly has clarity in viewership. Who's gonna watch it? Those who haven't seen Ratsasan, right? How many are left, by the way? Anyway, let me clear it for you that Cuttputlli sparks lower than Ratsasan's magical, thrilling show. Does that excite you? The choice is completely yours.

Cuttputlli is about aspirant film writer and director Arjan Sethi (Akshay Kumar), who joins the police force after a string of failed filmmaking attempts. As soon as he joins the Kasauli Police Station, a serial killer goes berserk in the town, kidnapping and killing teenage girls brutally. Arjan's senior officer, Sho Parmar (Sargun Mehta), treats his filmy brain low at first, but then realises the mistake after one more brutal murder. Arjan falls in love with a schoolteacher, Divya (Rakul Preet), and continues his search for the mastermind killer. Will he be able to save the other girls? Will his smartness be enough to beat the mastermind? Find out all the answers in Cuttputlli, in case you didn't read the answer sheet already in Ratsasan.

Ram Kumar's script is loop-free, be it Ratsasan or Cuttputlli. You can't guess the killer even with that storming brain that has seen more than a hundred classic thrillers. I guess that's the fun here. But can I say the same for the screenplay? The answer is a clear No. What goes wrong is flawless momentum. In the beginning, you waste more than 15 minutes building things up. Then you have a love story running in the thriller (as if that's mandatory for every Indian film), just to link up the characters later. The idea is brilliant, but the backdrop isn't. Nonetheless, this psycho thriller thing has to have some nonsense to keep the dramatic elements alive. Cuttputlli cuts many useless scenes from Ratsasan and gives it a good trim. But it fails to add something of its own. It's just a frame-to-frame copy, with no soul and body of its own. Aseem Arora's screenplay has a few glitches, but overall it's a decent remodelling of Ratsasan.

Akshay Kumar as Arjan Sethi is neither impressive nor dull. There was nothing different to do from what Vishnu Vishal did, and therefore the comparison makes it look dim. Of course, whoever is the first always goes away with more praise, and that's what has happened with Cuttputlli too. Rakul Preet looks gorgeous in every single frame, and the cinematographer has made her look even more beautiful with close-up frames. To be frank, performance wise, there was no scope. Suzane George did look devious in Ratsasan as she had such a face and body, but here Sargun Mehta looks too gorgeous to be devious. Chandrachur Singh, Hrishitaa Bhatt, Gurpreet Ghuggi, and the child artists are decent to good in their supporting roles.

Cuttputlli looks like a very low-budget film on screen. The screen filters are bad. Even the prosthetics are visible, from eye brows to powder to every cosmetic. Didn't the editor see it? What was Ranjit Tewari doing in front of the monitor anyway? Julius Packiam's background score with no words and dance is better than Tanishk Bagchi and Dr Zeus's boring songs with lyrics and dance. Cuttputlli is badly edited and shot, just like any low budget thriller from a substandard industry. If they trimmed so many scenes from Ratsasan, why didn't they trim songs? Wasn't it a good chance to show your cinematic intelligence? Cuttputlli sounds better than Ratsasan's Hindi dubbing just because it was the original language, but Hindi-dubbed viewers won't understand this. Those who watch films in the original language with subtitles will understand the difference here. So the question remains, is Cuttputlli better than Ratsasan? Hell No! Is it as good as the original one? The answer is a clear No. Does Cuttputlli offer anything new from the original? The answer is No. Can it be watched? The answer is, it depends. Those who have seen Ratsasan should skip it for good, and those who haven't, can watch it - only to acknowledge why the original was a 'magical show'.

RATING - 5/10*