Spoilers ahead…
Not all jokes hit the mark, but if you catch the film’s vibe, there’s enough foolishness for a pleasant – if unremarkable – couple of hours.
Can you make comedy from “serious social issues” like caste discrimination and patriarchy? Vignesh Shivan proved that you could. In his delightful episode in the Tamil anthology Paava Kadhaigal, he mined black comedy from the serious social issue of honour-killing. The film’s absurd tone mirrored the absurdity of people who think nothing of murdering their children whose only “crime” was to marry someone from a lower caste. In Kathal, Yashowardhan Mishra takes a similar approach. This is not black comedy, exactly, but the absurdness of the events on screen perfectly fits the absurdity of, say, a senior cop at a press conference who cannot recall if the number of rapes committed by the accused is 17 or 70. “Let’s just say there’s some ambiguity,” he declares. I laughed out loud. Sometimes, the best way to show a mirror to the incompetence and injustice around us is to let go of outrage and embrace your inner clown, like the truth-spewing vidushak from Sanskrit drama. That’s what Kathal does.
You can read the rest of the review here:
https://www.galatta.com/hindi/movie/review/kathal/
And you can watch the video review here:
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musical v
May 22, 2023
This is a good comedy and the female cops make a great pair. Where there is rajpal, there will be laughter. Dahaad is also about a lower caste female cop tackling a tough case. Good to see female cops taking over from FIR to ott.
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KK
May 22, 2023
“Kathal is less about those jackfruits than the bunch of jackasses that we have to deal with daily. The film could have been better, but I’m not complaining too much.” I concur. I also found the movie to be pleasant. Not an adjective I thought could be used for a supposed mystery thriller. Also what do you think about the similarities with Dahaad? Low-caste protagonist, a case that acts as a trigger to a bigger mystery (love-jihad there, jackfruit here), also a politician who sets the plot in motion, the hinterland vibe. The tone, treatment and scope of the narrative are of course very different but I am just pointing out the similarities.
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brangan
May 22, 2023
Not seen DAHAAD yet, so please guys, no spoilers.
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brangan
May 22, 2023
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KK
May 22, 2023
Ohh that wasn’t a spoiler, it was in trailer itself. Also you mentioned a Tamil movie, but you could have mentioned Darlings as well which also mines black comedy from a prickly subject like domestic abuse.
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KK
May 22, 2023
Is there some issue with wordpress? My comments are not showing up. Anyway just wanted to mention a movie Darlings by Alia bhatt which also uses black comedy to comment on the domestic abuse.
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Rahini David
May 22, 2023
So far comments without links work fine. Please give a gap of 10 mins.
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Anu Warrier
May 22, 2023
I like Sanya Malhotra – need to catch this soon.
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