“It’s not the goodbyes that hurt, but the flashbacks that follow”
We have all seen that dada, the bully, the college rouge – of whom the entire college is scared of, no self respecting girl would like to go near to and whose sycophants will keep saying ‘par uska dil achcha hai’. The difference in Kabir Singh is that our protagonist is a meritorious student, rank holder and has all round abilities. Enough to woo a self respecting Kiara Advani (seems a clone of Esha Deol) who barely says three words before going on a kissing spree. Kabir is imposing, doesn’t understand the concept of consent and exudes a lot of intensity – an aspect critics criticized a lot – same guys who were wowed by Sanju sleeping with some 308 ladies! The hypocrisy aside, for every proverb or saying, we have grown up learning, there is one countering it. So if Pink advocates ‘No, means no’… Kabir Singh bats for ‘Try try till you succeed’, ‘go get it’, ‘where there is a will there is a way’ and many more.
Dr Dev D with a damp ending
Director & story writer Sandeep Vanga Reddy champions a Reddy in his South Indian version and a Singh in his North Indian market remake. Kabir goes from an overbearing lover – who decides whom his girl should befriend, what she should wear, where she should sit, when to take her out of an esteemed medical college classroom at will – to a Devdas hell bent on self destruct. The reason? Caste differences that stop Romeo and Juliet from being Mr and Mrs. While on the topic of caste-ism, Article 15 is a must watch movie. Our hero is flawed, our heroine is flawed and the script is flawed..underlined by the dumb climax revelation. But then, aren’t our lives surrounded by flawed characters and incidents?
Shahid Kapoor is top notch
Yet what makes Kabir Singh tick is the leading man and the conviction with which he plays the character out. Shahid Kapoor exudes raw passion, energy and is bang for the buck .. just as he was in he much unappreciated R..Raajkumar. Dot like in Udta Punjab, scenes where he is scaring people (whether the maid, the students, his girl’s family, all and sundry) are the best. Despite acknowledging he is flawed to the core, the audience still watches the story through his eyes. The scenes with his buddies (impressive), with his brother, with Kiara, with his grandma (impressive) are memorable … primarily because Shahid does the heavyweight lifting up of the scenes, by a few notches. The music is good and despite obvious flaws in the story (the football match isn’t built up well, the romance is sort of fast forwarded, his friends although keeping a tab on him day and night.. never care to check on his girl’s status despite them all living in same city) Kabir Singh is an engaging watch.
Rating: 3/5
