At a time when Bollywood is really trying to find its feet again, a good murder mystery could have worked wonders. However, Cuttputlli falls flat and doesn’t deliver as much as we thought it would. Starring Akshay Kumar in the lead with Rakul Preet Singh, Sargun Mehta, Chandrachur Singh, Gurpreet Ghuggi and Sujith Shanker in major roles, Cuttputlli is directed by Ranjit Tewari and written by Aseem Arrora.
Arjan Sethi (Akshay Kumar) is an aspiring filmmaker who is trying to sell a thriller to Punjabi producers who only want comedies or family dramas. As he keeps getting rejected, he decides to give in to his family and join the Himachal police in his father’s footsteps.
The film starts on a gory note. A teenage girl is found dead in the quiet town of Parwanoo in Himachal Pradesh. During Arjan’s first few days as a cop in Kasauli, he gets involved in a murder case similar to the one we see at the beginning of the film. It is soon established that this is the work of a serial killer and the first person who realises this, of course, is crime-obsessed Arjan.
Sargun Mehta plays SHO Gudiya Parmar, Arjan Sethi’s ruthless, cut-throat boss in charge of the case. She is Arjan’s nemesis from the first day of the case when he turns out to be smarter than the most senior cops in the station. She delivers a tough performance in her Bollywood debut, but we know Sargun Mehta is capable of a lot more. To make Cuttputlli anywhere close to memorable, her character should have been worked on more in terms of background and personality. Rakul Preet Singh plays Divya, a school teacher and Akshay Kumar’s love interest in the film. Beyond this and some comic relief, she doesn’t have much to do in the film.
The story of Cuttputlli moves slowly in the first half with the characters taking far too long to arrive at a conclusion that the viewer already knows. Even halfway through the film, it gets a bit annoying that the story keeps deviating from a murder mystery to a childish love story. And the last thing a film like this needed was a highly forgettable love song in the middle. This whole romancing much, much younger women is getting kinda old…even for Akshay Kumar.
Cuttputlli could have been gripping throughout but the execution falls short. Chandrachur Singh, who plays cop Narinder Singh and Arjan’s brother-in-law, is not the same actor he used to be. And what should have been one of the most hard-hitting scenes in the film is ruined by Singh’s and Kumar’s inability to emote convincingly. A turning point in the story and an opportunity for the actors to really shine on screen is completely wasted.
The second half of Cuttputlli, however, is much better than the first. The pace picks up and the action on the screen grips your attention. While the journey to the climax is quite intense, the ending borders on idiotic. A story that is narrated in a span of seconds should have taken a lot more space in the film. In fact, that is a story that might have been much more hard-hitting to watch. I cannot say more here without giving spoilers, but if you watch the film, you will know what I mean.
Cuttputlli is not so bad that watching it will feel like a waste of time. But it’s a film that can be watched over the weekend as you scroll through your phone from time to time.
Cuttputlli is streaming now on Disney+ Hotstar.
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