Will Akshay Kumar recover his lost glory with Cuttputlli?

With Akshay Kumar announcing Cuttputlli as his next release, it is time to look again at the original film Ratsasan a gripping edge-of-the-seat cat-and-mouse thriller in Tamil which was the surprise hit of 2018.

Four years later and in spite of knowing the heart-in-the-mouth climax I was gripped by the clipped script.Ratsasan which means demon is a serial-killer thriller about a mystery man (or is it a woman?) who targets, brutally tortures and murders schoolgoing girls.

Writer-director screenplay Ram Kumar’s screenplay has many scream-out-loud moments. To be honest there are way too many shockers crammed into the fast-paced thriller, like a box of assorted chocolates with too many choices.

To the film’s credit, over here, more is not a bore but an occasion to score. No matter how sceptical you are about the high-pitched narrative tone, it has you by your jowls never letting your attention stray for even a second.

Going by the trailer the Hindi remake directed by Ranjit Tewary is a faithful adaptation of the original which makes as much sense as having the same dish on the menu cooked by two different chefs. Portions of Ratsasan are clearly too pedestrian to warrant an encore.

While saluting the storyteller’s propensity to perpetrate a high-velocity suspense I must also point out that some of the writing is way too formalistic, almost giving the film’s powerful message of paedophilic sexual violation a sense of exploitation. This is especially true of the sequence where the father and uncle of a butchered girl find her mauled corpse in the dicky of a car. The sequence is shot like an episode of Ekta Kapoor ’s serial.

One hopes the excesses of mayhem and melodrama in Ratsasan would be done away with in the Hindi remake. For all its faults of excessive enthusiasm, Ratsasan remains a riveting serial-killer thriller, with the red herrings also contributing to the plot’s tactile tone. There is a slimy loathsome teacher named Inbaraj (played by Vinod Sagar) who sexually abuses the girls, one at a time, in an emptied classroom.

The episode is chilling and repugnant. Agreed, cinema is supposed to hold up a mirror to social ills. But must the showing of these ills be so sickening?

The lighter moments between the cop-hero Arun ( Vishnu Vishal ) and his family and with the schoolteacher-single mother Viji ( Amala Paul ) are well charted in the plot. But be warned: every girl child /teenager who has been written into the plot will be attacked.

The identity and motivations of the serial killer are revealed in the last half-hour. Although far-fetched the climax keeps us riveted to the plot. Ratsasan moves in stealthily and paces itself ahead of the audience. It is relentless in its determination to ambush our attention. Even in the over-the-top moments, Ratsasan keeps the adrenaline rush at peak-hour traffic.

Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha.

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