critic's rating: 3.0/5

Kabir Singh is the official remake of the 2017 Telugu blockbuster Arjun Reddy. Shahid Kapoor reprises Vijay Deverakonda's role as a brilliant but self-destructive surgeon who descents into alcoholism and drug abuse when his girlfriend Preeti (Kiara Advani) is forcibly married to someone else.

Kabir is a prime example of a toxic mentality ruling the heart and mind of an overachiever. Kabir excels at everything, he's a university topper and also a champion sportsman. When a football ground fracas leads him to thrash opposition players, he's suspended from the college for some time. "I'm not a rebel without a cause, sir," he rants to his dean (Adil Hussain), justifying that he lost his temper because the prestige of the college was at stake.

He falls in love with a first-year student, at first sight, boldly claiming her as his girl in front of the college and warn other males to stay away. He wants her to excel and offers her private tutoring. One wonders why she follows him around so meekly. Why she doesn't retaliate when he kisses her in front of everyone, marking his territory.

Things change when students from another institution misbehave with her during Holi. He beats them up and that's when she actually opens up to him. They make their relationship physical and start living together. When he leaves for Mussoorie for higher studies, she keeps visiting him and he too reciprocates. He wants to marry her but her father, who catches them smooching, takes umbrage to that. He can't understand this behavior and overdoses on morphine and alcohol. In the meantime, her father forcibly gets her married. He goes and creates a ruckus at her place, which leads to his own father turning him out of the house. He starts working as a surgeon and becomes a functioning alcoholic. His medical license gets temporarily suspended by the court after a case goes wrong. Whether or not he turns his life around forms the crux of the film.

The film is going to make the feminists cringe for sure. We don't know why this meek girl tolerates her lover's borderline obsessive behavior. Why she doesn't slap him back when he slaps her. It can be a case of opposites attract but that doesn't come out in the film. He's also shown to be physically attracted to others but strangely doesn't consummate the relationship corrected it. The heroine is said to have left her husband and fends for herself, living alone despite being pregnant. Sadly, neither the original, nor this remake bothers to show us her side of the struggle. She's mostly absent after her marriage scene as the film dedicates itself to showcasing the hero's alcoholic stupor. The ending too is flawed. The sudden change of heart of the girl's father jarred in the original and here too adds unintentional hilarity to the proceedings.
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At 172 minutes, the film is too long by modern standards. Thankfully, Vanga has gone for a non-linear mode of storytelling and going back and forth in the timeline does keep the viewer engrossed. Imaginative use of background score, especially when it comes to highlighting the hero's violent nature, too keeps the attention focussed.

What keeps us from noticing the film's flaws outright is the power-packed performance by Shahid Kapoor. He has done an amazing physical transformation for the film, managing to look like a student at first and later as a young professional, shedding at least a decade. His body language is spot on. The madness, the rage of Kabir Singh is made almost palpable through Shahid's portrayal. His heartbreak and alcoholism seem real as well. We wish Kiara Advani had more to do. Shalini Panday, who played Preeti in the original, had the innocence and vulnerability of a fresher down pat and somehow Kiara doesn't quite emulate that. She's better in the confrontation scenes but they are too few and far between. Mention must be made of Soham Majumdar, who plays Kabir's best buddy Shiva in the film. He's not just there for comic relief but is the archetype of a supportive friend who stands tall for his pals through every thick and thin. It was good to see Kamini Kaushal as the progressive grandmother. Needless to say, the veteran nails the role.

Trailer : Kabir Singh

Ronak Kotecha, June 21, 2019, 12:52 AM IST

critic's rating: 3.5/5

Story: ‘Kabir Singh’ is an official remake of the Telugu blockbuster 'Arjun Reddy'. The film charts the journey of a short tempered doctor Kabir Singh (Shahid Kapoor), whose obsession for his girlfriend leads him on the path to self-destruction. Can he come out of the dark world that he creates for himself?

Review: Meet Kabir Singh – the kind of boyfriend, who is aggressive, obsessive and would go to any extreme for his girl. He is all in or nothing at all. As a senior and a topper in one of Delhi’s most reputed medical institutes, he wields immense power. Thanks to his lethal anger issues, there are few who would want to mess with him. By his own admission, he becomes a rebel with a cause as soon as he sees his junior in college Preeti (Kiara Advani). For him, it is love at first sight. But this is far from a meet cute romance, with mush gush and the regular romantic toppings. It immediately gives Kabir’s unsettled and self-destructive streak a reason to manifest. Thus, begins the real journey of his character into the deep dark abyss of chasing the love of his life. Shahid’s performance lets the character get away with a lot of vices like womanizing, drug addiction, alcoholism and brash male toxicity. For some, his actions and recklessness might seem problematic, but that is evidently his character sketch, and Shahid plays it with brutal honesty. Shahid Kapoor completely surrenders himself to the extremism of Kabir Singh. The powerhouse performer plays each and every shade of Kabir with such passion and perfection that his conviction makes you root for him, even when he is far stretched from being the picture perfect lover boy.It is only because of Shahid’s strong performance that many of his characters’ excesses seem justified. His character is deeply misogynistic, abusive, reeks of misplaced sense of male entitlement - exactly the kind of man that our society reeling under patriarchy and sexist stereotypes need to call out. His psyche and behaviour are dominated by his irrepressible anger and desperate need to be in charge of the women he is obsessively in love with.
In terms of screen space, no one comes close to the leading man. For most part, film’s leading lady Kiara remains demure and is left to use silence as her only tool for performance. With such limited scope, she never really gets a chance to shine. Shahid’s trusted friend Shiva (Soham Majumdar), on the other hand, gets ample opportunity to show solid support even when his friend is way out of line.

The film’s conflicts in the second half start becoming repetitive. The pace of the film becomes an issue with a runtime that is undeniably long. Thankfully, the realism and build up to Kabir’s deterioration is well executed and so is the practical support that he gets from his family. Writer-director Sandeep Vanga Reddy, who also helmed the Telugu original, makes his hero vulnerable but not weak enough to feel sorry for.

The remake stays mostly true to the original. However, the original had better chemistry between the lead actors, hence the love story seemed more effective. Also, Kabir Singh is a tad more humane than Arjun Reddy while being equally intense. He always shows up looking dapper, even in the most dire conditions. So it isn’t a surprise that the most pretty girls, including a heroine Jia (Nikita Dutta), falls for his unabashed charm. Film’s music compliments the narrative with its soulful renditions in the background.

While 'Kabir Singh' is a welcome change from stereotypical love stories, this kind of love affair needs some getting used to. If you can generally accept the fact that human beings can be flawed (sometimes deeply flawed), you will be able to stomach this rebellious story of love with extreme madness, often lacking rationale and reason. Through his protagonist, Sandeep bets all his cards on his leading man, making sure you either love him or hate him, but you can’t ignore him.