Judgemental Hain Kya? Review – Weird Yet Intriguing

Rating: 3.5/5

2019-07-26T14:35:12+05:30
Critic Rating: (3.5/5)
Movie Name Judgemental Hain Kya
Cast Kangana Ranaut, Raj Kumar Rao, Amrya Dastur
Director Prakash Kovelamundi
Story Kanika Dhillon
Producers Ekta Kapoor, Shobha Kapoor, Shailesh R. Singh

Prakash Kovelamundi is the son of one of the biggest commercial directors of Telugu cinema in the 80s and 90s, K Raghavendra Rao. He has helmed as the director for Judgemental hai kya, which is penned by his wife Kanika Dhillon who shot to fame with the recent Manmarziyaan. The film stars two of the most talented actors as their leads – Kangana Ranaut and Raj Kumar Rao. The movie was initially titled as Mental Hain Kya and later judge prefix was added after certain opposition.

The movie’s trailer was intriguing indicating a dark comedy thriller and it sticks to it. The movie’s main lead is Bobby played by Kangana. Bobby is a dubbing artist by profession. She fantasizes herself in all the female lead roles she dubs for. She even dresses up like them secretly wishing to be a lead actor one day. Bobby undergoes trauma in her childhood as she experiences the death of her parents. That affects her mentally and affects her mental being for life. This makes her very eccentric, in terms of looking, thinking and talking. She has a peculiar take on the world and the people. Enter Keshav and Reema played by Rajkumar and Amrya Dastur, who become the tenants of Bobby. Keshav and Reema’s chemistry seems to ideal and unreal for Bobby. A murder occurs, and Bobby is shocked. She starts suspecting Keshav as the culprit and starts digging into the truth. The suspense gets unveiled only at the end.

Kanika Dhillon’s writing and the screenplay is appealing and of course, deserves to sit in the round table with Rajeev Masand at the year-end. The film begins and continues to be weird yet interesting, eccentric yet not annoying. Bobby’s character has been written well and screenplay-ed creatively. You feel for Bobby and root for her. The very perspectives of Bobby make you take the side of Bobby many a time. The character is genuinely unusual with convincing reasoning. The narrative has a reference to Ramayan which sounded good but didn’t work to the effectiveness of the analogy. Most of the film is crisp and quirky unless a few parts in the second half. The twists are interesting and involve the viewer in speculating stuff. The movie also carries a likable message.

The casting is pitch-perfect for the film. Kangana nails it and plays like no other can. She makes us believe that only she could pull off such a bizarre role with tons of conviction. Glad to see her doing an unforgettable role, after few years of dismal on-screen and real-life performances. Raj Kumar Rao delivers his best yet again. He gets to do a yet again different role and is completely convincing. The supporting cast also does a good job.

The film is technically well done too. The cinematography and editing also take the cake. The music gels with the film too.

All in all, Judgmental hai kya is a well-packaged film by the director-writer couple.

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Cast & Crew  
Kangana Ranaut