A lousy remake of a gripping Tamil thriller

Cuttputtli

Hindi (Hotstar)

Director: Ranjit Tiwari

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Sargun Mehta, Rakul Preet Singh

Rating: 1.5/5

Akshay Kumar plays a police officer in yet another film and we thought he wasn’t allowed to do that outside Rohit Shetty’s cop universe!

‘Cuttputtli’, directed by Ranjit Tiwari, is a murder mystery starring Akshay, Sagun Mehta and Rakul Preet Singh. The film is a painful attempt at recreating the magic of the Tamil hit ‘Raatchasan’. ‘Cuttputtli’ doesn’t maintain the suspense felt in the original film. In fact, it would make more sense to call the film a dramatic rom-com than a serial killer thriller.

Akshay plays a rookie cop Arjan Sethi. He is passionate about films but his scripts have no takers. Arjan lives with his older sister, brother-in-law and niece. The first half is full of unnecessary scenes that glorifies the hero. The film doesn’t flesh out major aspects of the plot. Arjan gets into the investigative mode when 15-year-old girls are brutally murdered in the city. The film shows mutilated bodies of children in grotesque manner. Pedophilia and sexual assault are portrayed in a crude and insensitive manner.

In the middle of these gory killings, our protagonist Arjan finds himself falling for his niece’s teacher Divya, played by Rakul Preet Singh. Then, in true Bollywood fashion, they break out into a song and dance.

The stakes are raised when someone close to Arjan is in danger, leaving the audience to think they will finally get the gripping thriller they signed up for. But ‘Cuttputtli’ continues to drag as audiences wait longer to find the psychopath killer. ‘Raatchasan’ focuses on things that help build suspense, like tighter frames, faster cuts and a creepy music box tune that becomes the leitmotif of the killer and his presence. This Hindi remake ignores these elements.