Akshay Kumar, aka fitness Kumar, is one of the most consistent stars in Bollywood. Even in the post-lockdown times, Khiladi Kumar is as active as in the pre-pandemic era. In 2022 itself, he gave three movies back to back named Bachchan Pandey, Samrat Prithviraj, and Raksha Bandhan. And, he’s back with another movie, a psychological thriller Cuttputlli. The movie is released on September 2, 2022 (Friday) on Disney+ Hotstar. Hence, the review for the movie Cuttputlli remains average.
Cuttputlli is a remake of the South Indian film Ratsasan, a Filmfare awardee for its direction. It was a popular movie that grossed around 179.54 crores against its budget of 18 crores. As per the critics, Cuttputlli is almost 90% copy of Ratsasan with some modifications. So the question is, does Bollywood has really nothing new to offer? However, in this article, we will review Cuttputlli as a movie while getting some insights to know how far it succeeded in its remake attempt. So let us begin.
About Cuttputlli
Cuttputlli movie is the Hindi remake of Ram Kumar’s 2018 Tamil movie Ratsasan. Ratsasan stars Vishnu Vishal and Amala Paul in the lead roles along with Ammu Abhirami, Saravanan, Kaali Venkat, etc. Cuttputlli is directed by Ranjit Tewary, who earlier worked with Akshay Kumar as an assistant director in Patiala House (2011).
It is a story of catching a serial killer in the small and peaceful hill station of Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh.
Cuttputlli Star cast
Akshay Kumar plays the primary role of cop Arjan Sethi. Rakul Preet Singh as Divya, Sargun Mehta as SHO Gudia Parmar, Chandrachur Singh as Narinder Singh, Shahid Latief as Sub-inspector Machchan, Sujith Shanker as Purushottam Tomar, Seher Bhowmik as Iti (Divya’s Niece), Gurpreet Ghuggi as Guleria, and others were some other significant casts in the movie.
101 Dalmatian Street (2018) actor Joshua LeClair as Christopher and The Mummy (2017) actor Rez Kempton as DSP Ajay Shukla are also significant parts of this movie.
The Plot
Cuttputlli revolves around a case of mysteriously missing teenage girls in a small town of Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh. But, these ordinary missing cases turn out to be serial killers’ work. This is because the murderer of those girls leaves a gift-wrapped doll with ‘cut’ faces. And this is how the name of the movie, which is ‘Cut-Putli’ instead of Katputli, finally makes sense. It’s not a spelling mistake.
This is the point where an aspiring filmmaker turned policeman, Arjan Sethi, appears. But he is often ignored by his fellow officers and seniors. Even his brother-in-law in the same department tells him to nod his head, saying yes to everything his seniors say.
Cuttputlli Movie Review
Cuttputli, as a Bollywood movie, is a decent thriller filled with a chilling story. But, as a remake, it scores less than Ratsasan. Why? Well, the hero in Ratsasan was its story. But Cuttputlli focuses more on its male protagonist, Arjan, and his heroism. It continues in its attempts to establish the 50+ actor as a man in his thirties against a much younger actress playing his love interest. And this happens by repetitively addressing it through the dialogues. In one of the scenes, Rakul remarks Akshay is “Too young to be a father”, to which Kumar says, “Chawanprash”.
The Cuttputtli makers tried to convert a simple thriller into a typical masala Bollywood movie by adding love songs, romance, and family drama. And this ruined the needed emotional connection between the audience and the story. It’s funny how an ‘obsessed’ policeman Arjan, forgets the case and dances to some romantic song with his love interest in exotic locations. He plays the character of Akshay Kumar himself rather than a cop named Arjan.
Cuttputlli is, however, not that bad to watch. Some stellar moments and performances make it a movie worth watching. Some praiseworthy moments in the movie involve the chase sequences, thrilling buildups accompanied by a decent background score, and the scenes revealing the serial killer. Performances of Sargun Mehta as SHO Parmar, Sujith Shanker as Purshottam Tomar, Renaye Tejani as Payal, and Joshua Leclair as Christopher were good. It was pleasant to watch some old actors like Chandrachur Singh and Hrishitaa Bhatt again on screen.
Overall, in the review of the movie Cuttputlli, we can say that it is worth watching on streaming platforms than in theatres. It remains an entertaining movie worth watching once as Cuttputlli than the remake of Ratsasan.
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