Social Satire – Kat-Hal!!

From time to time, serious (like Sherni) as well as comedic social/political satires (like ‘Peepli Live’) adorn the Indian movie landscape. The latest to join this list is ‘Kat-Hal’ directed by Yashowardhan Mishra starring Sanya Malhotra (of Dangal fame), Vijay Raaz and a host of other actors.

The movie’s story revolves around two cases: one of a serious nature involving a missing teenage girl and other involving a missing (kat-hal or jackfruit) from the tree in the front yard of a local MLA in a small town. Brave Inspector Mahima, played superbly by a emotive Sanya Malhotra is assigned to the missing jackfruit case and is under lot of pressure to crack it. How the inspector decided to pursue both the cases and solved it makes the rest of the story.

Highlights

• Vijay Raaz plays the role of a local politician to perfection, whether it be threating the law enforcement or his son-in-law into submission and bending the political system to suit his needs.
• Rajpal Yadav like Vijay Raaz is a amazing fit into this movie as a no-holds barred risk-taking news reporter, who drives the story forward and adapts quite well to the new age of ‘breaking news’.
• Gurpal Singh, Neha saraf and a host of the supporting actors play their part to perfection in providing a realistic setting to this movie.
• No words can be enough for Sanya Malhotra, who single handedly carries the movie on her shoulders acting to perfection in each and every scene. Her performance in Dangal and Menakshi Sundareshwar were splendid and we look forward to many such enthralling performances.
• But the real show-stealer is Anant V Joshi, who through stellar underplayed role of constable Saurabh Dwivedi, who is also in love with the inspector, brings quite a refreshing honesty and realism into the character, albeit in a muddled way.
• The story by Ashok Mishra, music by Ram Sampath and strong editing by Prerna Saigal (running under 2 hours) lend quite a strong support to the movie.

However, the icing on the cake is director ‘Yashowardhan Mishra’ who splendidly handles every department and delivers an absolute masterpiece. This light hearted comedy that delivers quite a strong message on gender equality, caste discrimination and governmental system in general is a must watch and is available on Netflix with sub-titles.

Do let me know your thoughts on the movie.