Kadak Singh Review : This suspense thriller packs in many layers but is let down by its slow pace

Story: AK Srivastava (Pankaj Tripathi) an officer at the Department of Financial Crimes (DFC) suffers from selective amnesia after a failed suicide attempt. But as he begins to hear different versions of the events leading up to the day of his attempted suicide, he begins to piece together what might have actually happened and unravel the financial scam case he was working on at the time.

Review: 'Kadak Singh' opens with a hint of what might have landed Srivastava at the hospital. All he can remember is his son who he believes is five years old, his wife and a few colleagues. For the rest of the narrative his family, friends and close teammates relate different sides of his life story to help him rejig his memory. As his adult daughter, Sakshi (Sanjana Sanghi) tries to remind him of her existence, she reveals that while Srivastava may have been one of the best officers at DCF, on the personal front his life was in shambles. As a single father, he barely managed to keep cordial relations with Sakshi (Sanjana Sanghi) and his 17-year-old son, Aditya (Varun Buddhadev). His constantly abrasive and sometimes abusive nature at home led his children to give him the nickname 'Kadak Singh'. In Sakshi's version he is an absentee father, an uncooperative husband and even beats up Aditya for secretly smoking at home. In fact, she blames her mother's death on him. And in a coincidental sequence of events, Sakshi who tries to bail Aditya out of a sticky situation owing to his drug addiction, ends up having a confrontation with her father right in the middle of the streets of Kolkata, with his colleagues watching. An event, that his colleagues believe led him to attempt suicide. But Sakshi believes her father is made of sterner stuff, having seen him not break under the most difficult of circumstances. Even her mother's death or his close colleague's suicide, caught in the middle of a financial scam didn't shake him from his line of duty.

Through the rest of the film, Srivastava is presented with three other sides of his story. Arjun (Paresh Pahuja), his trusted aide and mentee, Mr.Tyagi (Dilip Shankar) his boss and Naina (Jaya Ashan), his girlfriend also meet him at the hospital to give him their takes on his life events. And drawing a link between all the four versions is his nurse, Ms. Kannan (Parvathy Thiruvothu), who listens in on every story.

Director Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury (whose earlier films like 'Pink' and 'Lost' garnered considerable critical acclaim) tries to bring out different layers in the narrative - Srivastava's failure at being the wholesome family man, his passion for his work that makes him one of the best officers in his team and the ongoing investigation of a major financial scam which seems to implicate him as one of the main accused. And at one point all the layers intersect for the story to come as a whole. Relationships at home and work get re-evaluated.

However, Kadak Singh is no Rashomon. Despite having a compelling premise at hand it fails translate that on screen. The narrative feels overstuffed and the pace is excruciatingly slow. If one were not aware that this is a suspense thriller beforehand, it would be hard to guess the genre till almost forty minutes into the film. Even background score is oddly placid for a thriller. And with a run-time just two hours 'Kadak Singh' still manages to feels like a stretch.

However, the film has to its advantage seasoned actors like Pankaj Tripathi and Parvathy doing what they do best. Tripathi straddles the acutely different notes to his character effortlessly well. Parvathy is understated yet effective. Jaya Ashan makes her presence felt in the limited screen time she has. Sanjana Sanghi has a tough role to pull off and while she does manages to hold her own in some scenes, in a few others she comes across as listless.

The film's momentum picks up in the last half hour as it connects all the dots and Srivastava closes in on the main culprits of the financial scam and the mystery behind his colleague's suicide. But by then one may have already guessed some of the suspects in the game. However, on the whole 'Kadak Singh' does qualify as a decent one-time watch over the weekend.