Deepanjana Pal
Looking at the credits of Kuttey is like listening to a serial name-dropper. The cast includes Naseeruddin Shah, Tabu, Konkona Sen Sharma, Kumud Mishra, Radhika Madan, Arjun Kapoor, Shardul Bhardwaj and Anurag Kashyap. The lyrics in the soundtrack are by Gulzar and Faiz Ahmed Faiz. The music is by Vishal Bhardwaj. After all this, if there’s one thing the audience is entitled to, it is great expectations. What you get, however, is disappointment.
Split into chapters, a prologue and an epilogue, Kuttey is about three trigger-happy, corrupt police officers; a couple that wants to elope; and a Naxalite group that’s stomping around Old Khandala Road like they’re on a company offsite. The police and the couple are after a truck that’s filled with cash meant for ATMs. Unsurprisingly, the best-laid heist plans of both the cops and canoodlers go awry.
To deal with the monotony and clichés in Kuttey, some may want to place bets on who will ultimately get the cash; others may amuse themselves by spotting references to other filmmakers’ works. It begins with the title itself — Kuttey feels like a hat-tip to Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs (1992).
It’s not that Kuttey is completely without promise. There are occasional scenes, like one in which an informer suggests setting up a WhatsApp group with his police handlers, that show a spark of wit and creativity. Unfortunately, these are too few and far between. Most of Kuttey feels like a student film that wastes the talent at its disposal.