Kabaad: The Coin review – The movie stays true to its title

When one saw the trailer and posters for director Varadraj Swami’s Kabaad: The Coin, one felt the film was so called because the protagonist is a kabaadi, or scrap dealer. While that is certainly true, after watching the film one realizes that the title also refers to the content of the movie.

Kabaad pretends to deal with different themes altogether. It is primarily the story of young Bandhan (Vivaan Shah), son of a scrap dealer. After his father suffers a heart attack and dies, he decides to take up the responsibility of running the scrap shop. Weirdly, just before his father’s death, Bandhan graduates with 92% marks. But he decides not to take up a job as he feels running his father’s ‘business’ is more important. Why? Don't ask me.

As soon as Bandhan becomes a kabaadi, his skin tone changes. His manner of working also puzzles you at times. For example, he takes a large quantity of scrap from a person and gets paid for it. Normally, it is the scrap dealer who pays for the scrap.

Bandhan’s life changes when he happens to come across a bag of gold coins. He later realizes these are antiques and he can make a much bigger fortune from them than the mere price of gold would suggest. But there are severe risks involved.

Shah, who is a good actor, is reduced to hamming here. He consistently overacts and at times gives weird reactions. As was evident from the trailer itself, he is a complete misfit in the role.

The film also features the character of the cobbler Waghmare (Atul Srivastava). He and his daughter Savita (Yashashri Masurkar) are Bandhan’s family friends. Savita is in love with Bandhan but he considers her just a friend. Meanwhile, Bandhan meets the rich Roma (Zoya Afroz) when he goes to collect scrap from her. She instantly starts considering him a dear friend. Quick and simple!

The love triangle is the most lazily handled part. One moment a person expresses undying love for someone. The next minute that same person is happy to accept somebody else as a life partner.

From the cast, Srivastava is the most experienced and versatile. But he, too, is way over-the-top here. The dialogues are a major culprit. Masurkar is the best of the lot, followed by Afroz. The film has a line of other artistes whose performances are forgettable.

The movie is also about gangsters and police frantically in search of those gold coins. This track is so convoluted that it’s better not to go into it.

From the very first minute, the film warns its viewers of the over-the-top presentation and performances as a few cops, who are guarding a museum, are killed in a silly manner.

In terms of writing and direction, the graduation films made by film-school students are way more sensible and mature than Kabaad. The narrative is regularly filled with scenes that make you wonder how they were okayed by the director. Not a single scene is portrayed in a sensible manner.

Kabaad: The Coin can best be enjoyed with a group of rascally friends out to mock a film on a night out. The laughter will be at its most belly-aching when Roma’s boss gets angry with her. The boss looks more like an intern.

Kabaad: The Coin is now being streamed on MX Player.