Hit 3 Movie Review: A flawed, self-satisfied yet engaging thriller
Hit: The Third Case(2.5 / 5)
In Sailesh Kolanu’s HIT: The Third Case, after many failed dates where his prospective partners are creeped out by his strange demeanour, the protagonist Arjun Sarkaar (Nani) finally finds a match in a demure young woman named Mrudula (Srinidhi Shetty). So when, after spending an entire day with Arjun in all his psychotic glory, Mrudula says she likes ‘grey,’ referring to the hair strands in his beard and his personality. The film subliminally stages this as a moment of subdued validation for Arjun. The protagonist is a flawed yet loveable ‘hero’. In a similar mood later on, Mrudula confesses to Arjun how he always inspired her. HIT 3 is not interested in establishing a hero who must merely be followed and not necessarily idolised. Arjun Sarkaar, for all his flaws, remains a hero. And HIT 3, for its little touches of originality, remains a generic thriller, albeit an engaging one.
Director: Sailesh Kolanu
Cast: Nani, Srinidhi Shetty, Rao Ramesh, Prateik Babbar, Komalee Prasad
Underneath all the flab, there is a potentially great movie that explores the chaos around a man with anti-social tendencies who finds people of his tribe, only on the questionable side of morality. He relates to the chaos on one level and yet doesn’t on another. HIT 3 is also one of those rare films that gets better as it enters the post-interval stretches. Unfortunately, this film is not interested in the psychology of its premise. Even though it introduces a fascinating new element of terror in the second act, bringing in a Fight Club-like layer to the proceedings, the narrative doesn’t build on its noir-imbued energy strongly enough. The thriller also suffers on account of a weakly performed antagonist—Prateik Babbar is serviceable, but one wonders what a character like Alpha could have evolved into in the hands of a better actor. Once all the mystery cards are played out, the film has nothing left in its quiver except for concocting newer forms of bloodbath on-screen, which is precisely what happens in the final 30 minutes. Action directors Lee Whittaker and Real Satish design a couple of slick, well-choreographed sequences. At the same time, these visuals are not distinctive or novel enough. While Sailesh Kolanu never lets loose of the reins—the film remains consistently engaging, even in its flawed moments—you eventually grow numb to the violence on screen.
Throughout the film, Arjun keeps asking, “purpose enti?” (What’s the purpose?)—even in relation to his blind dates. Something similar needs to be asked about Arjun’s penchant for violence. Arjun is given a text-heavy backstory—he doesn’t get along with his father, remains proud of the legacy and wisdom of his grandfather, and misses the warmth of his mother—but none of this adds much to his motives or actions. There is also a recurring joke about Arjun not granting leave to one of his colleagues, and it is left dangling oddly, without any payoff. Arjun’s violent tendencies remain a distant embellishment, instead of being seamlessly ingrained in a narrative that deals with the dark side of human nature at its core. This absence of sufficient explanation paves way for glorification. The makers might have claimed that they haven’t glamourised violence in the film, but an absence of critique, with such extreme aesthetics at display, remains tantamount to glorification nonetheless.
What largely redeems HIT 3 is Nani and his staggering portrayal of Arjun Sarkaar. Despite a self-referential dialogue, where he makes light of his ‘classy’ image, Nani undoubtedly remains the only actor who could bring a distinct edge to a role as quintessentially 'massy' as this one. Here too, the actor finds ways to surprise us even when the scriptwriters throw in the towel. If anything, Sailesh Kolanu appears to overcompensate for the discomforting violence with moments and dialogues that deify the police officers, in essence the system. For every grey stroke, there is a heroic moment that elevates Arjun in the fashion of a classic on-screen saviour. When Arjun asks his team to evacuate a dangerous location, he says he will ‘hold the fort.’ At one point, a little child says to Arjun, “every police officer is a star,” reminding him of his valiant grandfather.
At another point, Arjun’s responsible superior (Tisca Chopra), representing an average liberal on Twitter, reprimands Arjun for assaulting a few Muslim men, while being a Hindu cop. “A cop,” Arjun corrects her, emphasising the insignificance of religion in a situation like theirs. While this argument would not hold merit at any point in our history, it feels nothing short of obtuse in our current political climate. Sailesh Kolanu also incorporates a recurring visual of Arjun beating criminals on the back. So when such a visual finds a place in his altercation with Kashmiri locals, it feels oddly disconcerting. The HIT franchise filmmaker could have used any other part of the country as the backdrop for the chapter with Arjun’s misdeeds, but the conceit of callously using Kashmir as a perfunctory backdrop for a subplot says plenty about the film’s political inclinations. Whether it is about the form of depicting violence or incorporating a politically conflicted region as a cursory backdrop, one is never apolitical—that’s something most people, and mainstream artists, don’t understand.
But then again, we need to consistently remind ourselves that HIT 3 is not overtly keen to explore its psychological complexity or its political undertones. It’s content being a violent, trigger-happy thriller. To give credit where it's due, Nani, Sailesh Kolanu and team succeed in delivering that specific film.