The earlier HIT films surprised us with twisted investigation stories that hinged on one perpetrator, but the third movie takes it further with a gleeful amount of gore. The rest of this review may contain spoilers.
If I opened up director Sailesh Kolanu’s brain, I think I’d see a very dark and twisted soul. And dark and twisted souls are exactly the kind you want for investigative thrillers revolving around dark and twisted antagonists. The first HIT movie discovered deep hate in something as innocent as an orphanage, and the second film’s serial killer had his roots in a childhood incident. I thought the third case would involve yet another creative killer, but this time, Sailesh brilliantly amps up the stakes by having several killers spread out over the country. The way they kill their victims is the same. And what’s more shocking is the point we see Nani (as a cop named Arjun Sarkar) doing something similar. Are we in one of those movies where the hero is also the villain? Is Nani trying to get rid of his good-boy image?
Well, the latter is certainly true – I think. He smokes a big fat cigar and these clouds of smoke are nothing compared to the clouds in his mind, thanks to an absent mother who did not teach him how to feel. (That’s this film’s conceit, and I went along with it.) But this is the main thing: Arjun Sarkar is always angry. He is always ready to use violence as a solution, whether it is upon seeing a police uniform being set on fire by a mob or upon seeing a couple of eve teasers. It is a fairly one-dimensional role, but Nani plays Arjun Sarkar like a real, rounded character. He gives thoughtful pauses while he speaks. He knows he has to control his anger sometimes, and that reflects in his body language. This stylish film just needed a star performance, but Nani lends it some actorliness, too.
HIT is the rare franchise that treats its women well. Whether it is the female cop who gets a bravery award, or Arjun’s love interest Mridula, played by Srinidhi Shetty, or Komalee Prasad as Arjun’s deputy, there is enough to suggest that this is not an all-male world. I loved the way Mridula’s character is written. There is the promise of a kiss, which is delivered at just the right moment of a conflict. And just when I had written her off as a generic love interest, she comes into her own as a character we do not expect. The overall story benefits from these clever bits of surprise. One of my favourites is a bit involving a medication Arjun is on. Did you know that a knife wound is more dangerous when the knife is pulled out? The film plays with nuggets like this, too.
At a time there is so much globe-trotting, it’s nice to see a movie that goes India-trotting. Seeing Arjun in various states, with various cops speaking various languages, lends a lot of flavour to the proceedings, which centre on horrifying questions of morality. The villain asks: Why should we obey the rules that society has made for us? Why is killing someone a crime? This is a dark, dark film, and the second half really comes into its own with some of the most deranged and inventively staged violence since Marco. If you love splatter and gore, you’re in for a treat. You realise why, sometimes, cops have to be as crazy as the psychopaths they are after. I was horrified – not because of what was on screen but because, in my theatre, I saw a father bring his little boy for this movie.
The HIT franchise is perfect junk food, but with smarts. For instance, we hear about organs being removed from the people who are killed, but it’s not the usual heart or kidney. Every aspect is pushed to give us something interesting. This HIT episode, perhaps, feels a little more star-heavy when compared to the earlier ones, but that’s perhaps inevitable. The Dark Web makes an appearance and this is perhaps the first film to go deep into that troubled zone. As they say, if you want to catch a thief, you need to think like them. But there is lightness, too. The cameos at the end are great fun. They are also a reminder that even a hero could use some help, every now and then. I, for one, am totally looking forward to the fourth case.
