Kadak Singh Star Cast/ Actors: Pankaj Tripathi as AK Shrivastav alias Kadak Singh, Parvathy Thiruvothu as Nurse Mimi, Sanjana Sanghi as Sakshi Shrivastav, AK’s daughter, Jaya Ahsan as Naina, AK’s girlfriend, Paresh Pahuja as Arjun Shrivastav, AK’s son, Varun Buddhadev as Aditya “Adi” Shrivastav, AK’s son, Dilip Shankar as Tyagi, AK’s boss
Kadak Singh Director: Aniruddha Roy Choudhury
Kadak Singh Release Date: December 8, 2023
Kadak Singh Available On: Zee5
Kadak Singh Released/ Available In Languages: Hindi
Kadak Singh OTT Platform: Zee5
Kadak Singh Runtime: 128 Minutes
Kadak Singh Critic Review:
Best known for directing Pink, Aniruddha Roy Choudhury returns with a differently structured crime story, a bit like a fun Rashomon.
AK Srivastava (Pankaj Tripathi), an investigator with the Department of Financial Crimes (DFC) is on a hospital bed. He can’t remember most things, he certainly can’t recall daughter Sakshi (Sanjana Sanghi) or feel any paternal stirrings in him. But he knows he’s got a five-year-old son called Aditya (Varun Buddhadev). Only, the son is now 17 years old. A bit like John Nash’s never-ageing kid in A Beautiful Mind.
AK’s been told that he attempted suicide and sometimes it could lead to the brain playing games with his memory, selectively.
Aniruddha, with Ritesh Shah and Viraf Sarkari helping him with story and screenplay, presents a blank but curious patient who’s willing to listen to a good story. Head nurse Mrs Kannan (Parvathy Thiruvothu) is a hilarious companion in the room who puts in a dry comment or two as Sakshi tells AK her version of who he is.
He is the unsmiling Kadak Singh, the nickname he’s been given by Sakshi and her kid brother who’s in rehab.
AK is all ears but skeptical all the way, his eyes twinkling as he comments on the turns in Sakshi’s story to Mrs Kannan. AK, says his daughter, has a lady friend too named Naina (Jaya Ahsan). AK has a classic reaction to it, he insists he’s no womaniser.
Naina, a face and name he has no memory of, steps in to tell her story. How they met, how they became intimate.
From DFC, his young assistant Arjun (Paresh Pahuja) who admires AK greatly, also has a story to tell. So does his boss, Mr Tyagi (Dilip Shankar).
But something’s not adding up. AK is not the kind of man who’d have attempted to end his life. Not for a frivolous reason like his daughter having a showdown with him in public.
AK’s also too perfect to have left behind an incomplete suicide note or to botch up his suicide.
So why has he landed up in a hospital bed?
“Once an investigator, always an investigator,” remarks AK as he solves a financial scam that he’d been working on. From his hospital bed, simply by piecing together bits of all the stories, AK’s investigative brain leads him to the right conclusion.
Such an interesting concept.
Such a different way of narrating a crime story.
And such a remarkable actor. The always-efficient Pankaj Tripathi who can shut his eyes with dull disappointment at one moment and sparkle with unabashed amusement the next second, serves an array of moods as the story of AK Srivastava and the scam unravel. With Parvathy on the side, there’s room to smile too.
But the crime and the case itself are not taut, gripping or a stunning revelation. Once you hear what really happened at home and a misunderstanding is cleared, Kadak Singh’s unsmiling act also doesn’t carry conviction.
Kadak Singh – Watch Or Not?: Releasing it on OTT was a sensible decision for watching such a non-linear narration is best done in the comfort of home.
Kadak Singh Review Score Rating: 2.5 out of 5
Kadak Singh Official Trailer:
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