Kennedy review: Anurag Kashyap's movie is dark, heavy and unsettling

Anurag Kashyap's Kennedy is not an easy watch; it is disturbing, brutal, and haunting. Much like Kashyap's past films, this movie also portrays the unsettling side of the society in which we all live. After travelling around the world through various film festivals, including Cannes, the film’s journey has finally come to an end, as it is now available for audiences to watch in India.

Kennedy stars Rahul Bhat as an insomniac ex-cop who struggles through each day of his life and carries a troubled past, and has committed several wrongs. Set during the COVID-19 pandemic, the movie only reminds us of that time when there was silence on the roads and everyone was forced to wear masks.

Kennedy is not an easy film to watch. If we talk about Anurag Kashyap’s cinema, it has often been extremely raw, violent, and at times glamorous, where there are no clear heroes or villains; they are just human beings who have done questionable things and are living with the guilt of their past deeds. However, Kennedy is moody, tragic, and silent, slightly different from the director’s earlier works, which were politically loud and at times chaotic.

Kennedy: What is it about?

Rahul Bhatt plays Uday Shetty, an ex-cop who has long been presumed dead in the eyes of the world and is now living in the shadows. Troubled by his past, Kennedy is on a killing spree. His past is gradually revealed as the film unfolds, we slowly learn more about the character. Under the orders of a corrupt commissioner (Mohit Takalkar) and driven to take revenge for his son’s death, he steps out at night as a cab driver while the rest of the world sleeps.

Kashyap's commentary on a haunting real world

Kennedy is dark and ghostly, and is seen through the eyes of a soulless man. In one scene of the movie, it is not Kennedy who kills the MLA; instead, the MLA’s own son brutally murders both his father and mother after they refuse to fulfil his wishes. In this, Kennedy is an observer of the rotting, problematic society, beyond the corrupt political world and system. The scene ends with Kennedy killing the boy in the most brutal form, but it's cold. No feelings attached.

Beyond this brutal image, there is a family man inside Kennedy. He is struggling to stay away from them, but it is his own actions that have pushed the family apart. He earns money for his wife (Megha Burman) and daughter (Haripriya Manish Lodhia). He watches their every move from a distance, misses them deeply, yet cannot return. It was his wrongdoing that destroyed his family life, and he has paid for it through the loss of his son.

The two-and-a-half-hour-long film unfolds in darkness, and almost every sequence carries another killing. Alongside the violence, however, the film reveals the darker side of society, told through an individual, in this movie, it's Kennedy, who is empty and corrupted, yet very much a part of this broken system that we all co-exist in. While brutality takes centre stage, emotion balances the story.

Rahul plays the challenging character with ease, and his eyes are something that has made his emotions speak louder. There is a constant gaze that conveys pain, guilt, and emptiness without the need for dramatic dialogue. Sunny Leone's smile and lough is haunting. Although her character is not given much screen time, it serves the narrative well. The film reveals the struggling side beneath the glossy and posh world she lives in.

Still from Kennedy Photograph: (X)

Kashyap carefully crafts the world of Kennedy. The film is not compelling; instead, it pushes you to look beyond the good image of the world we are living in. It demands patience and attention, and even then, it does not aim to “grip” you in a traditional thriller sense. The pacing is slow, very slow, with a mood in which you sink in gradually.

What keeps you hooked to the film? What happened to this man that made him so cold? That curiosity was only my motivation to watch this movie. The film unfolds layer by layer, revealing what has happened in his past and the emotional traumas that shaped him. The movie leaves you with darkness and a sense of heaviness.

Kennedy is streaming on Zee5