Movie Review - Mr. Kabaadi by Suhel Johar

Mr. Kabaadi Is A Front Runner In The Worst Films Of The Year Category.

Mr. Kabaadi is supposed to be a satirical comedy. The film starring the late Om Puri is perhaps the last film of the thespian. The film has been directed by Puri’s ex-wife Seema Kapoor. Starring in the titular role is Annu Kapoor who happens to be Seema’s elder brother. The film deals with a poor scrap dealer who strikes gold. But he fails to buy any happiness with his wealth and acceptance within the society of rich and wealthy people around him.

The story of the film goes like this. Garbage collector named Kallu Kabaadi (Annu Kapoor) who used to pick up waste materials or garbage from the road side with his wife Chando (Sarika) due to some kind of a miracle become rich overnight. They own a bungalow and move into a rich society with his wife and kids, Chaman (Rajeev Singh) and Methi (Ulka Gupta ). After becoming rich Kallu Kabaadi doesn’t want any of his family member to let anybody know that he has a poor past. In doing so he severs all relations with old friends, garbage dealers, poor relatives. But all of his attempts being a rich seems a wastage. Because your past will follow you always no matter who you become or wherever you hide.

The film is a typical Annu Kapoor film rather than being an Om Puri film wherein the deceased actor is nothing more than a narrator or a sutradhar with his voice over by Satish Kaushik. 

There is not much to catch in the film except the satire carried out in the most weird ways with loads of unintentional laughter. The film has no real purpose, no head or tail and depicts a complete bankruptcy of ideas.

Annu’s daughter is shown to be fairly educated and can converse in English while his son is a fifth grade dropout who excels in the business of running a chain of public toilets.

Annu wants to get his son married in a rich family but no one is interested in getting a son in law who runs a business of toilets. This is the standard of comedy in Mr.Kabaadi. Nothing in the film seems to work in this inane film and this can easily be referred as an example of what not to do to film students. One feels sorry for the soul of Om Puri that this had to be his last film.

Direction by Seema Kapoor is appalling and her writing (story, screenplay, dialogue) is patthetic. Photography by Veejay P Varude and editing by Sanjib Datta is bad. Music by Ali Ghani , Raaj Prakash and Vishal is ordinary.

Performancewise, Om Puri has nothing much to do in the film. Annu Kapoor is too loud and hams his way through. Sarika, Vinay Pathak and Brijendra Kala have been wasted. Ulka Gupta, Rajeev Singh and Kashish Vohra  etc just go through their drills.

On the whole, Mr. Kabaadi is an avoidable and forgetful film.