The indiscretions of the bourgeoisie

Kadakh

CAST:

Ranvir Shorey, Mansi Multani, Palomi Ghosh, Chandrachoor Rai, Rajat Kapoor, Kalki Koechlin, Shruti Seth, Nupur Asthana, Sagar Deshmukh, Tara Sharma, Cyrus Sahukar DIRECTOR:

Rajat Kapoor RATING: ★★

Like Aankho Dekhi, Rajat Kapoor’s brilliant 2014 film, his latest, Kadakh, is located in one place. It don’t go places, but people come and go, talking of… In his flat at Sangeeta Apartments, Sunil (Ranvir Shorey), is on the phone, ordering booze for a Diwali party that evening when the bell rings.

It’s not his wife, Maalti (Mansi Multani). It’s some Raghav (Chandrachoor Rai) who has come visiting. He says he is “Chhaya ka pati” and is carrying more than just questions and a grudge.

He wants to know, “Kab se chal raha hai”, and how it was. But when Sunil responds, he snaps.

Malti arrives. And eventually the guests trickle in and the party takes off.

They drink, chat, joke, celebrate Rahul’s (Rajat Kapoor) forthcoming book. Yogesh (Cyrus Sahukar) has his odd theories, and Joshi (Sagar Deshmukh) has five kilos of mutton to cook while he’s waiting for a French girl.

She arrives with a suitcase and says she’s a mentalist.

Many conversations take place simultaneously, arguments break out, tempers fly, reputations are flayed and then Maalti’s Chacha-Chachi arrive, completing the theatre of the absurd.

A game of cards ensues, but

Sunil smells something rotten.

Kadakh’s screenplay is written like a genre classic of the theatre of the absurd, including the meaninglessness of human existence and showcasing a morally barren landscape. It even ends where it begins.

The film’s plot is interesting, compelling even, and the end is both bizarre and disturbing. The problem is that apart from the main action, there’s very little in between.

Directed like a theatrical production — where people walk in and out of the camera’s lens — the lack of fluidity in action is mirrored by the stasis in conversation.

The dialogue are awkward and often fall flat, but the actors try to carry them. Mansi Multani, Palomi Ghosh, Rajat Kapoor, Kalki Koechlin, Shruti Seth and Sagar Deshmukh are quite good. Ranvir Shorey, Cyrus Sahukar and Chandrachoor Rai are fabulous. Wish they had more gripping material to work with.