In what is Bollywood's obsession with getting everything remade, arrives Cuttputlli, the official remake of the 2018 thriller Ratsasan. The Vishnu Vishal-starrer was considered as one of the best Tamil films of that year, a gritty investigative thriller about a rookie cop trying to catch a mysterious serial killer who targets high school girls. The Hindi remake is directed by Renjith M Tiwari and stars Akshay Kumar in the lead, along with Rakul Preet, Chandrachur Singh, Sargun Mehta, Hrishitaa Bhatt among others. Cuttputlli Movie Review: Akshay Kumar's Casting is a Major Weak Point in This Otherwise Okay Remake of Ratsasan.

Cuttputlli has arrived straight on Disney+ Hotstar and has met with an average response from both viewers and critics. While we found the movie to be engaging and a decent remake, what lets Cuttputlli is the casting of its main lead, and the inexcusable need to go for a cut-copy-paste approach, never bothering to rectify the flaws of the original.

Cuttputlli could have been a better film and remake, if the makers could have gone for the below five basic fixes to the film. Needless to say, there are MAJOR SPOILERS ahead.

A Younger Actor In Place of Akshay

Akshay Kumar in Cuttputlli (Photo Credit Cuttputlli Trailer)

Akshay play a 36-year-old rookie cop in the movie, which feels odd considering he is of 54 years. Still, a very fit Akshay could have almost passed himself off in that role, if the makers hadn't cast Hrishitaa Bhatt as... erm... his elder sister, despite being more than a decade younger than him, or have him romance a 31-year-old Rakul Preet. This age-misappropriation often comes across as an irksome hindrance even when the film is at its most engaging. An Ayushmann Khurrana or a Vicky Kaushal could have better suited the character.

Or Rewrite the Character

Akshay Kumar in Cuttputlli (Photo Credit Cuttputlli Trailer)

If the makers were insistent on having Akshay in the lead, then they should have rewritten the character to suit the actor. There is no hard rule that when you are to remake a film, you need to follow the same beats as the original. Instead of a rookie cop, Akshay could have played an older character that suits his age, and I am sure his performance would have been even better.

Ditch the Romantic Track

Akshay Kumar and Rakul Preet in Cuttputlli (Photo Credit Cuttputlli Trailer)

This is a flaw not just with the remake but also with the original. However, at lead the pair of Vishnu Vishal-Amala Paul felt a credible match, considering they are closer in age. Wish we could say the same about Akshay and Rakul, the age-gap notwithstanding. The romantic track feels an annoying distraction from the far more engaging portions, which is especially noted at the birthday party scene, when Akshay's character flirts with her merely hours after feeling traumatised for killing a man. Lack of chemistry between the two is another dampener. OTT Releases of the Week: Akshay Kumar's Cuttputlli on Disney+ Hotstar; Robert Aramayo's The Lord of the Rings – The Rings of Power on Amazon Prime and More!

Trim the Runtime

Akshay Kumar and Rakul Preet in Cuttputlli (Photo Credit Cuttputlli Song)

Cuttputlli's first act that establishes the hero's failure to sell his script and then his joining of the police force, and then his meeting with Rakul's character, are merely humdrum and deserve some trimming. Same also goes for the needless romantic song dropped in the middle of the film. Some smarter editing and Cuttputlli could have turned out to be a better thriller than what we got.

The 'Killer' Reveal

A Still in Cuttputlli (Photo Credit Cuttputlli Trailer)

This is another flaw of the original that the remake has borrowed. Let's warn you that we are discussing a major SPOILER here. So in both the films, the serial killer turns out to be a young man who is suffering from progeria and uses his dead mother's identity (a la Psycho) to cover his activities. There is one thing about using a disease as a excuse to turn someone into a killer, despite the movie blaming his early bullying as a reason. But even more ridiculous is the makers not understanding how the syndrome affects a person physically as to not do any of the crimes the killer in the film is capable of.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 02, 2022 05:31 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).