Shiddat review: Sunny Kaushal, Radhika Madan are impressive in this outdated romantic drama

Time was when mainstream Hindi cinema was known for romantic films. With the passage of time, however, and the need to explore new subjects, love stories lost their prominence.

Kunal Deshmukh’s Disney+ Hotstar movie Shiddat (2021) tries to fill the void by attempting to bring back the old-school romance where a guy can go to any lengths (literally) to be with the gal he loves. Unfortunately, the film’s treatment makes it outdated instead of old-school.

Shiddat starts off with rich guy Gautam (Mohit Raina) getting married to his girlfriend Ira (Diana Penty) at a lavish function. Joginder aka Jaggi (Sunny Kaushal) gatecrashes the event with two friends for the free liquor. There he hears Gautam’s romantic speech and gets so mesmerized that he starts living by it.

Later, when Jaggi, who is a hockey player, meets Kartika (Radhika Madan), a swimmer, at a sports event, he falls for her instantly. She also gets close and has a one-night stand with him, only to drop a bombshell that she is getting married to someone else in London after three months.

Jaggi is shattered but doesn’t give up. He takes it upon himself to fly to London for the only woman he has loved. In the process his path crosses Gautam's again. The latter is now with the Indian embassy in Paris and is forced to help Jaggi out.

The biggest problem with Shiddat is that you don’t feel for Jaggi, Kartika or their love story. From the very beginning, Jaggi’s conduct with Kartika is problematic. After behaving with her like a creep and a stalker at the swimming pool, he clicks pictures of her without her consent and uploads them on Instagram. Kartika, who is supposedly a strong character, acquiesces after initially making a fuss.

She, on the other hand, gets romantically involved with Jaggi and leads him into the one-night stand though she is set to be married to someone else. Then, instead of being sorry, she tells Jaggi casually to forget her. And despite such a put-down, our lover boy has no grudges against her!

A major portion of the film is devoted to the track between Jaggi and Gautam where, too, logic takes a back seat. A high-ranking Indian diplomatic official agrees to take an illegal immigrant home just because he can’t send him back to India for some reason. If you think this is weird, there is more, but I will let you figure that out yourself.

Notwithstanding these logical problems, Shiddat has a few pluses that make it watchable, the performances being the biggest. While Sunny Kaushal’s character is problematic, the actor delivers an emotional act full of shiddat (passion). Radhika Madan matches him with a dedicated performance.

Gautam would have appeared sillier if not for Mohit Raina's maturity as an actor. Diana Penty also comes up with a decent act. Atul Kumar’s casting as the typical father of the heroine is perfect.

Shiddat also scores high marks in the music department, another reason why you don’t want to give up completely on the film. Along with the title song, ‘Barbadiyan’, 'Akhiyan Udeek Diyan' and ‘Jug Jug Jeeve’ are tracks that you would want to revisit even after the movie.

These positives, however, do not override the negatives. And Disney+ Hotstar makes the experience worse with regular interruptions for advertisements even for subscribers.

Shiddat has been released on Disney+ Hotstar.