Director: Yashowardhan Mishra
Cast: Sanya Malhotra, Vijay Raaz, Rajpal Yadav, and others
Streaming on: Netflix
Rating: 2.5 stars
A lot of us will try to like a film that is backed by Oscar-winning producer Guneet Monga and develop a preconceived notion about her latest offering Kathal, which is nothing more than a lighter version of Anusha Rizvi and Mahmood Farooqui’s 2010-directorial Peepli Live that dealt with subsequent farmer suicides and how media and judiciary responded on it.
Kathal is almost on similar lines, but here, the director touches upon the issue of missing girls in a small village. SP Mahima (Sanya Malhotra) and her team are in search of two missing jackfruits of the MLA (Vijay Raaz). During this investigation, how Mahima unravels the other bitter reality of the village and how she solves the mystery, Kathal showcases that in the rest of its premise.
Director Yashowardhan Mishra picks up a social subject and presents it in an easy breezy way. His narrative is lighter than expected. The writing tickles your funny bone but in long breaks. In fact, the pace of the film actually fluctuates and compels one to doze off at many portions. He tries hard to keep this social satire pumped up but sadly disappoints in totality.
Kathal has a stark resemblance to the narrative of Peepli Live, which depicted the real state of the farmers in the country. That film was a solid take on the media landscape and the not-so-good judicial system of India.
Although Kathal is not even close to it but seems like Yashowardhan finds a safe place to fall back on a film like Peepli Live in 2023 for his narrative. He cleverly apes the tonality of the former film and garnishes it with another topical social issue.
Earlier, Yashowardhan helmed Mandi (The Market) in 2017, which was a short film about a farmer and his struggle to sell onions in the city. It looks like he and his narratives have a keen interest in making brave attempts in telling rooted stories of our heartland but lack a good screenplay.
Sanya, who is an absolute charmer on-screen for potentially portraying light-hearted characters, does justice as a local and hardworking cop. Her love story with a constable is cute and so is her banter with the MLA. Despite Sanya being the driving force of Kathal, the weak writing doesn’t really help her. Vijay Raaz and Rajpal Yadav are funny.
Kathal is absolutely not an avoidable film but certainly a below-average one for sure. It is a film that highlights a flawed judiciary, media circus, power play, etc. Unfortunately, it is far from a perfect example of a modern-day social satire.
