Kennedy movie review: Stinging and Devastating, Anurag Kashyap returns to the revered art-pulp elite

Kennedy movie review: Stinging and Devastating, Anurag Kashyap returns to the revered art-pulp elite

‘Kennedy’ - With a litany of woes behind its release, ‘Kennedy’, directed by the auteur of tenebrious thrillers, has arrived on OTT. ‘Kennedy’ was made in 2023 and screened at the MAMI Festival the same year but had soon run into trouble with the censor board for its objectionable content.

While it’s not unusual for the filmmaker who had been in similar predicament right from his first film - the unreleased ‘Paanch’, ‘Kennedy’ does hit you hard with its ill-fated protagonist and his personal turmoil. A disgraced cop and encounter specialist who is long presumed dead operates as a cab driver in the dark underbelly of Mumbai. Uday Shetty (Rahul Bhat) who goes by the moniker Kennedy, leads a double life under the payroll of a corrupt cop, Rashid Khan and carries out hits for him. Haunted by the loss of his son and his broken family, Kennedy searches for redemption in a city that won’t let him escape his past.

Crafting ‘Kennedy’ as a neo noir drama, Kashyap conjures a moody, atmospheric narrative filled with silence, rage, and survival. As ‘Kennedy’ is framed in a dangerous conspiracy involving explosives, extortion rackets, and powerful forces, he is forced into a violent chase for truth, revenge, and one last act of redemption. His life is intersected with an escort, played by Sunny Leone – a mysterious, fragile yet strong woman and a multitude of characters as his assignments. A cynosure of all eyes at myriad film festivals, ‘Kennedy’ unspools at a snail place, rife with stylized action, haunting visuals, an ominous background track and Anurag Kashyap’s signature noir storytelling which tests your patience sometimes but is revived spectacularly in the final act.

Kashyap, who is known for his bold and defiant voice, makes an antagonist out of the system and the moral rot that also consumes Kennedy’s personal life as a collateral damage. Bhat, truly one the most underrated actors today, gets into the skin of the eponymous character with restraint and an insomniac brood that intensifies under the film’s tactile melancholy. He lives those silences, treads through the pain, loneliness, and the agony with an unending quest for redemption.

‘Kennedy’ boasts of an unusual ensemble - Mohit Takalkar, Megha Burman, Aamir Dalvi, Abhilash Thapliyal, and Karishma Modi in pivotal roles, each adding layers to Kennedy’s fractured world. Much of the film’s bleak identity is derived from his equation with the estranged daughter – its stinging and devastating. The biting ringtone carries the heft of the damage and lingers while the end credits roll.