''Kaabil'' () is a 2017 Indian

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

-language

action thriller film The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as D ...

directed by

Sanjay Gupta Sanjay Gupta (born October 23, 1969) is an American neurosurgeon, medical reporter, and writer. He serves as associate chief of the neurosurgery service at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, associate professor of neurosurgery at ...

, written by Vijay Kumar Mishra, produced by

Rakesh Roshan Rakesh Roshan (born 6 September 1949) is an Indian film producer, director, screenwriter and actor who works in Bollywood, Hindi films. He appeared in 84 films in the 1970s and 1980s. As an actor, he is mostly known for his supporting roles in ...

under his banner FilmKraft Productions. It stars

Hrithik Roshan Hrithik Roshan (; born 10 January 1974) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi cinema. He has portrayed a variety of characters and is known for his dancing skills. One of the highest-paid actors in India, he has won many awards, including si ...

Yami Gautam Yami Gautam Dhar ( Gautam; born 28 November 1988) is an Indian actress who works in Hindi films. A daughter of film director Mukesh Gautam, she began her career as a model, and starred in television soap operas such as '' Chand Ke Paar Chalo' ...

Ronit Roy Ronit Bose Roy (born 11 October 1965) is an Indian actor who works primarily in Hindi television and films and Bengali films. One of the highest paid television actor in India, he has earned numerous accolades including a Filmfare Award, five ...

and

Rohit Roy Rohit Bose Roy (born 5 April 1968/1969) is an Indian actor who is known for his work in several television and film productions. He is best known for his role in Hindi television serials such as '' Des Mein Niklla Hoga Chand'' on Star Plus an ...

.The music was composed by

Rajesh Roshan Rajesh Roshanlal Nagrath (born 24 May 1953) is an Indian music director and composer. He is the son of music director Roshan and brother of actor, producer, director Rakesh Roshan. Career Rajesh Roshan had a frequent successful collaboratio ...

and lyrics were penned by Nasir Faraaz.

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...

of the film 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. Roshan received the

Filmfare Award for Best Actor The Filmfare Award for Best Actor is an award, which is presented annually at the Filmfare Awards to an actor via a jury; it is given by ''Filmfare'' for Hindi (Bollywood) films. The award was first given in 1954. The most recent winner, as of 2 ...

nomination for his performance at the

63rd Filmfare Awards The 63rd Filmfare Awards ceremony, presented by the Filmfare Magazine, honored the best Hindi language Indian films of 2017. The ceremony was held on 20 January 2018 and hosted by Shah Rukh Khan, Karan Johar, Ayushmann Khurrana and Parineeti C ...

. The film was commercially successful.

Plot

Rohan Bhatnagar is a kind young man who has been blind since birth and works as an animation

voice actor Voice acting is the art of Acting, performing a character or providing information to an audience with one's voice. Performers are often called voice actors/actresses in addition to other names. Examples of voice work include animation, animated, ...

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 In the terminology of law, an assault is the act of causing physical harm or consent, unwanted physical contact to another person, or, in some legal definitions, the threat or attempt to do so. It is both a crime and a tort and, therefore, may ...

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 A suicide note or death note is a message written by a person who intends to die by suicide. A study examining Japanese suicide notes estimated that 25–30% of suicides are accompanied by a note. However, incidence rates may depend on ethnic ...

, 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 Death by burning is an execution, murder, or suicide method involving combustion or exposure to extreme heat. It has a long history as a form of public capital punishment, and many societies have employed it as a punishment for and warning agai ...

in an explosion. Chaubey suspects Rohan of Amit and Wasim's murders and puts him under

house arrest House arrest (also called home confinement, or nowadays electronic monitoring) is a legal measure where a person is required to remain at their residence under supervision, typically as an alternative to imprisonment. The person is confined b ...

. 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.

Cast

as Rohan Bhatnagar *

as Su/Supriya Sharma/Supriya Bhatnagar *

as Madhavrao Shellar *

as Amit Shellar *

Narendra Jha Narendra Jha (21 January 1964 14 March 2018) was an Indian actor. He was known for his work in Bollywood productions; his most noted films being '' Haider'', '' Raees'', '' Ghayal Once Again'', ''Hamari Adhuri Kahani'', ''Mohenjodaro'', '' Sh ...

as Inspector Amol Chaube *

Suresh Menon Suresh Menon (born 10 January 1967) is an Indian actor, comedian and television personality. Career Menon has appeared in movies including '' Grand Masti'', '' Phir Hera Pheri'', '' Partner'', '' Fool N Final'', '' Krazzy 4'', '' Deewane Huye ...

as Zafar (Rohan's Friend) * Sahidur Rahman as Wasim *

Akhilendra Mishra Akhilendra Mishra is an Indian film and television character actor best known for his role as ''Kroor Singh'' in the 1990s Doordarshan fantasy television series '' Chandrakanta''. His other notable works include the character of ''Mirchi'' Se ...

as Wasim's father *

Girish Kulkarni Girish Pandurang Kulkarni (born 25 November 1977) is an Indian actor, writer, and producer. He is a recipient of two National Film Awards namely, National Film Award for Best Actor in 2011 for his performance in '' Deool'' and National Film Aw ...

as Sub-Inspector Pravin Nalavde *

Urvashi Rautela Urvashi Rautela (born 25 February 1994) is an Indian actress, model and beauty pageant titleholder who predominantly works in Hindi cinema, Hindi and Telugu cinema, Telugu films. She gained prominence after winning the title of Miss Diva 2015 ...

(

special appearance In law, an appearance (from Latin ''apparere'', to appear) occurs when a party to a lawsuit physically appears in court, or to a formal act through which a defendant submits to the jurisdiction of the court in which the lawsuit is pending. History ...

in song "Haseeno Ka Deewana") * Shaji Chaudhary as Anna

Production

Development

announced the film officially in January 2016 with

portraying the lead role,

producing the project and

composing the

film score A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to ...

was confirmed to play the lead heroine while brothers

and

have played negative roles in the film. The film is produced by

under his production house under FilmKraft Productions Pvt. Ltd.

composed the music and

Salim–Sulaiman Salim–Sulaiman are an Indian music composer duo consisting of siblings Salim Merchant and Sulaiman Merchant. The duo has composed music predominantly for Hindi films. Life and early career Salim–Sulaiman's ancestral town is Mundra, Kutch, ...

provided the

background music Background music (British English: piped music) is a mode of musical performance in which the music is not intended to be a primary focus of potential listeners, but its content, character, and volume level are deliberately chosen to affect behav ...

for the film and

Resul Pookutty Resul Pookutty (born 30 May 1971) is an Indian film sound designer, sound editor and audio mixer. He won the Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing, along with Richard Pryke and Ian Tapp, for ''Slumdog Millionaire''. Pookutty has worked in Hind ...

for the film's sound design. The film's cinematography was performed by

Sudeep Chatterjee Sudeep Chatterjee is an Indian cinematographer, who mainly works in Hindi films and Bengali films. He has collaborated with critically acclaimed directors like Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Vishal Bharadwaj, Srijit Mukherji, Sanjay Leela Bhansali an ...

and Ayananka Bose.

Filming

commenced in

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

in March 2016. Filming took place over 77 days and concluded in July 2016.

Release

The film was released on 25 January 2017 worldwide along with

Rahul Dholakia Rahul Dholakia is an Indian film director- producer-screenwriter, most known for his National Film Award-winning film, '' Parzania '' (Heaven & Hell On Earth) (2005),Raees'' starring

Shah Rukh Khan Shah Rukh Khan (; born 2 November 1965), also known by the initialism SRK, is an Indian actor and film producer who works in Hindi cinema. Referred to in the media as the "Padishah, Baadshah of Bollywood" and "King Khan", he has Shah Rukh K ...

. ''Kaabil'' opened in 2700 screens whereas ''Raees'' opened in 3500 screens. On 2 February 2017, ''Kaabil'' was released across

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

, becoming the first Indian film to be screened in Pakistan, post lifting of ban on Indian films after the

2016 Uri terror attack The 2016 Uri attack was carried out on 18 September 2016 by four militants from Jaish-e-Mohammed against an Indian Army brigade headquarters near the town of Uri in the Indian Jammu and Kashmir. 19 Indian soldiers were killed in the attack, ...

and its

aftermath Aftermath may refer to: Companies * Aftermath (comics), an imprint of Devil's Due Publishing * Aftermath Entertainment, an American record label founded by Dr. Dre * Aftermath Media, an American multimedia company * Aftermath Services, an America ...

. It was released in

along with its

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

dubbed version titled ''Balam''. Following the good performance of the film at the box-office, Kaabil was released on around 200 more screens in India, on 2 February 2017. ''Kaabil'' was released in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

on 5 June 2019 but performed weakly upon its release.

Critical reception

Taran Adarsh Taran Adarsh (born 13 June 1965) is an Indian film critic and trade analyst. He is best known for giving trade figures and box office updates on social media, as well as his reviews for Bollywood Hungama. Career Taran Adarsh started his journ ...

of ''

Bollywood Hungama Bollywood Hungama (lit. "Bollywood Madness" in Hindi), previously known as IndiaFM (or IndiaFM.com), is an Indian entertainment website, owned by Hungama Digital Media Entertainment, which acquired the website in 2000. The website provides n ...

'' gave the movie 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 ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932 by P. Varadarajulu Naidu. It is headquartered in Noida, owned by the ''Indian Express Group''. It was later taken over by Ramnath Goenka. In 1999, eight y ...

'' gave the movie 1.5 out of 5 and said, "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 ''The Times of India'' (''TOI'') is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by the Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, third-largest newspaper in India by circulation an ...

'' gave the film a rating of 4/5 stars, noting that the movie seemed to be inspired by the 1989 movie ''

Blind Fury ''Blind Fury'' is a 1989 American action comedy film directed by Phillip Noyce and starring Rutger Hauer, Terry O'Quinn, Lisa Blount, Randall "Tex" Cobb, and Noble Willingham. It is a modernized, English-language remake of ''Zatoichi Challenge ...

'' 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 The ''Daily News and Analysis'', abbreviated as ''DNA'', is a Hindi-language news program on Zee news that was earlier an English-language newspaper with multiple local city editions across India. ''DNA'' was first launched as a broadsheet newsp ...

'' gave the rating of 4/5 stars stating "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". Writing for ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...

'',

Namrata Joshi Namrata Joshi is an Indian film critic based in New Delhi. Originally working for ''Outlook'', she remained there from 1999 till 2015, when she joined ''The Hindu''. She won the National Film Award for Best Film Critic in 2004. Career Joshi i ...

gave the film 2 out of 5 and called it a "predictable revenge and retribution saga that offers nothing new other than the visually impaired protagonists." Rachit Gupta from ''

Filmfare ''Filmfare'' is an Indian English-language fortnightly magazine published by Worldwide Media. Acknowledged as one of India's most popular entertainment magazines, it publishes pieces involving news, interviews, photos, videos, reviews, events, ...

'' wrote "Hrithik carries this film on his capable shoulders. His perfectly nuanced performance is the reason you’ll enjoy the thrills of Kaabil." and gave the movie 3 stars out of 5. Bollywood Bubble gave the movie a rating of 4 out of 5 and said, "‘Kaabil’ will present you a far bitter truth. It'll draw a very uncomfortable, shrewd reality wherein the ones in greater need of support are the ones often thrown on the edge, laughed at. It'll show you a world in desperate need of more compassion, more kindness." Joginder Tuteja of Movie Talkies gave the rating of 4/5 stars and said, "Rakesh Roshan has ensured that Kaabil turns out to be a commercial film for the audiences that has all the right ingredients in place and that too in the right proportions. It must have been quite a challenge to have three creative brains (Sanjay, Hrithik and himself) to blend seamlessly and deliver a product which is in just the right synch. That happens with Kaabil and that is the right reason why the final outcome keeps you glued on the screen right till the end." ''

Business Standard ''Business Standard'' is an Indian English-language daily edition newspaper published by Business Standard Private Limited, also available in Hindi. Founded in 1975, the newspaper covers the Indian economy, infrastructure, international busi ...

'' criticized the movie's plot and direction: "I’m not sure what’s more infuriating about this film – whether it’s regressive or stupid. Or whether it’s regressive and stupid and joyless and monotonous and silly and pointless. In fact, let’s call Kaabil for what it is: a B-movie with well-known actors. Worse, it’s exacerbated by shoddy CG, fake earnestness and a needless item number." Udita Jhunjhunwala from ''First Post'' gave the rating of 3/5 and wrote, "If you are able to look past many of these niggles it's thank to Hrithik Roshan's committed performance which keeps you rooting for his Rohan all the way." Sukanya Varma from ''

Rediff.com Rediff.com, stylized as rediff.com, is an Indian news, information, entertainment, and shopping website. Founded by Ajit Balakrishnan in 1996, it was the first Indian website to become a mainstream news media organization. It is headquartered i ...

'' gave the film 2.5 on 5, and felt that "Kaabil serves nothing beyond an unabashed platform to vaunt a seething Hrithik, sentimental Hrithik, snarky Hrithik, sly Hrithik or spry Hrithik...". Saibal Chaterjee from

NDTV New Delhi Television Ltd is an Indian news media company focusing on broadcast and digital news publication. It was founded in 1984 by economist Prannoy Roy and journalist Radhika Roy. NDTV began as a production house for news segments, ...

gave the movie 2.5 out of 5, calling the film "...paisa vasool ( worth the money) fare, if not more." Mike McCahill from ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' gave the film 2 out of 5, and remarked that "Sanjay Gupta's tale of a blind dubbing artist avenging the ghost of his wife is the sort of nonsense the Indian film industry stopped churning out 20 years ago."

Soundtrack

Complete soundtrack album was released on 21 December 2016 by T-Series. The soundtrack for ''Kaabil'' is composed by

. The song "Haseeno Ka Deewana" is a cover version of "Sara Zamana" from Roshan's original soundtrack to the film ''

Yaarana ''Yaarana'' or ''Yaraana'' may refer to: * ''Yaarana'' (1981 film), a 1981 Indian musical drama film directed by Rakesh Kumar * ''Yaraana'' (1995 film), a 1995 Indian romantic thriller film * ''Yaarana'' (2015 film), a 2015 Indian Punjabi-langu ...

'' (1981). The original ''Yaarana'' version was sung by

Kishore Kumar Kishore Kumar (born Abhas Kumar Ganguly; ; 4 August 1929 – 13 October 1987) was an Indian playback singer, musician and actor. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest, most influential and dynamic singers in the history of modern India ...

, and featured

Amitabh Bachchan Amitabh Bachchan (; 11 October 1942) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi cinema. He is often considered one of the greatest, most accomplished and commercially successful actors in the history of Indian cinema.* * * * * With a cinemati ...

and

Neetu Singh Neetu Kapoor (née Singh; born Harneet Kaur; 8 July 1958) is an Indian actress who is known for appearing in Hindi films throughout the late 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s. In 2012, Kapoor was inducted into the Walk of the Stars, an entertainmen ...

in the music video. The ''Kaabil'' cover version is sung by

Payal Dev Payal Dev is an Indian playback singer and music composer who sings and composes music for Hindi films. She sang "Ab Tohe Jane Na Doongi" from the film '' Bajirao Mastani,'' as well as "Bhare Bazaar" from '' Namaste England''. Dev made her debut ...

with rapper

Raftaar Dilin Nair (born 16 November 1988), better known by his stage name Raftaar, is an Indian rapper, lyricist, music producer, composer, dancer, actor and TV personality associated with Hindi, Punjabi and Haryanvi music. He is among the first rap ...

, while the music video is an

item number In Indian cinema, an item number or special song is a musical number inserted into a film that may or may not have any relevance to the plot. The term is commonly used within Indian films ( Bengali, Hindi, Kannada, Punjabi, Tamil, and Telugu c ...

featuring

References

External links

* * * {{Sanjay Gupta 2017 films 2010s Hindi-language films 2017 action drama films 2017 action thriller films Indian action drama films Indian action thriller films Indian vigilante films Films about rape in India Indian films about revenge Films about blind people in India Films scored by Rajesh Roshan Films scored by Salim–Sulaiman Films shot in Mumbai Indian rape and revenge films Films directed by Sanjay Gupta 2010s vigilante films Indian crime thriller films Indian crime drama films Indian crime action films Films about disability in India Indian mystery drama films Indian mystery thriller films Films about social realism Fictional portrayals of the Maharashtra Police Films set in Mumbai Films about murder Indian romantic action films Indian romantic thriller films Indian romantic drama films Films about actors Films about animation Indian gangster films Films about kidnapping in India 2010s police procedural films Films about suicide Indian political action films Indian police films Police detective films