“Kaabil” is an exceptional love story of two people with a visual impairment. Two independent singles accustomed to living with their disability and reluctant to get married. They have accepted that people with sight do not want a partner with impairment. When friends force them to meet, they wonder if they can find happiness together.
“Can two negatives make a positive?” This Is what the cheerful, effervescent pianist Supriya asks voice-over artist Rohan Bhatnagar. He intrigues the audience when he says he is willing to try.
When Rohan and Supriya come together they create a magical love that is no different from the love of people with sight. Rohan shows that the most beautiful thing a lover can bring to his beloved’s life is the comfort and confidence to try things she never thought she could. Dancing the salsa in perfect harmony with each other and with a large group of dancers. Feeling the thrill of insane rides in an amusement park, the joy of blowing soap bubbles and feeling them burst on your face.
Without any complex regarding their impairment, they crack jokes and call their relationship ‘love at first sight’. Supriya believes in dreams she was afraid to dream of before. When they are separated in the mall, one feels the anxiety and pain of their separation. Rohan seeks her out and he proves to her that they belong together. They decide to get married. One is drawn to the world of these two innocent people, enjoying marital bliss. To feel what is denied to them by the society – acceptance and love.
It is then the serpent is introduced into the blissful world of Adam and Eve. A rogue by the name of Amit Shellar (Rohit Roy) and his ally Wasim (Sahidur Rahman). Amit is the brother of the local corporator, Madhavrao Shellar (Ronit Roy).
Amit, the quintessential neighbourhood bad boy continuously picks on Rohan and his beautiful wife. The two accomplices keep teasing them and calling them “andha-andhi” because it gives them a kick. Amit’s repulsive remark, “Pyar andha hota hai suna tha, par andho ko bhi pyar hota hai pehli baar dekh raha hoon,” (I had heard before that love is blind, but I’m seeing for the first time that blind people can be in love.) defines the person he is. He teases Supriya and pays no heed to Rohan’s warning, “Kamzor mat samajh!” because he thinks, “What can a blind man do?”
The two louts find an opportunity and rape Supriya. Rohan’s world is plunged into darkness. Corrupt police officers, played by Narendra Jha and Girish Kulkarni, drag out the investigation.
The humiliation gets too much to bear. Rohan becomes withdrawn and frustrated with his helplessness. The drunk on power corporator Madhavrao Shellar threatens Rohan to forget everything.
One day he returns home and finds Supriya dead, not able to take the atrocities of the two bullies any longer.
The deeper the love, the bigger void it creates. Rohan Bhatnagar, a smiling, resilient, blind man transforms into a vindictive nemesis after Amit and Wasim destroy his happy marriage. Rohan finds the apathetic policemen still play blind man’s buff over his dead wife’s case. They leave him with no choice but to take the law into his own hands. Though we have stellar performers in the Roy brothers, Rohit and Ronit, it is the hero, Hrithik, who gets the loudest applause. He is vulnerable as a lover and ruthless as an assassin.
Rohan begins to live with a death wish for vengeance. How he, a man with visual impairment, uses his senses to plot and execute revenge is the rest of the story of “Kaabil”.
The film shifts gears; the tragedy turns to a crime thriller. Watching Rohan devise methods to beat his enemies at their game evokes awe. One feels goosebumps and adrenaline rush at the sequences carefully designed by director Sanjay Gupta and writer Vijay Kumar Mishra.
“Kaabil” is a movie that forces you to think about the power of love between persons with disability.
How it elevates them and fills gaps. Once snatched away, it also pushes them from the dizzy heights into an abyss. An abyss of darkness.
_
Image source: YouTube
Written by Rakhi Jain and first published on Bonobology.com