Review of Katti Batti

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Cast: Kangana Ranaut (Payal), Imran Khan (Madhav “Maddy” Kabra)

Direction: Nikhil Advani

Produced by: Siddharth Roy Kapur, Nikhil Advani

Written by: Anshul Singhal

Music: Shankar Ehsaan Loy

Cinematography: Tushar Kapoor

Edited by: Maahir Zaveri

Production Company: UTV Motion Pictures, Emmay Entertainment

Release Date: 18^th September, 2015

Duration: 140 minutes

Language: Hindi

Katti Batti is a romantic comedy by Nikhil Advani. In the beginning, it appears that the film is an attempt to explore the sweet-sour, love-hate relationship of the lead protagonists, who are in a live-in set up. But, later on the film moves to different domain explaining the reasons behind the katti Batti of the lead protagonists. Katti Batti are the words used by kids. Katti is the word used when kids fight and they decide that they would never talk to each other. Batti is the word which is used when the fight is dissolved and the decision to not speak to each other is not valid anymore. Nikhil explores the katti Batti of the lead protagonists. The Katti predominates in their relationship or finally Batti happens, that is for you to explore and watch. The frames keep moving from present to flash back. If the first half projected the romance between Imran and Kangana followed by their frequent fights and their relationship falling apart, second half is about Imran's pursuit to fetch her back.

The film begins with Payal (Kangana Ranaut) and Madhav aka Maddy's (Imran Khan) sharing some fun moments and capturing the same in camera viz. Quirky manner of getting married by taking the round of fire lit in the waste, using sauce instead of sindur etc. These scenes definitely set the tone of the movie to be a very lighter one, but they don’t generate much laughter. Very soon, we see Maddy being rushed to the hospital, who has drunk phenol because Payal has left him. His sister Koyal comes to meet him in the hospital, and she along with his friend Vinay takes him to hometown to his father Suneel Sinha. Koyal, though younger to him is very protective of him and takes authoritative approach. Both Koyal and Vinay persuade Maddy to forget Payal and move on in life. On Maddy's return to office (he is an architect), he finds that the whole office is sympathetic towards him due to his suicide attempt, courtesy Vinay. The frames in between move to the flash back to explain how it was love at first sight for Maddy. He fell in love with spunky Payal, her independent nature, quirky ways. He persistently followed her and expressed to her that he loves her. Payal transparently conveyed that she is not keen for any committed relationship; it would be just a time pass for her. Maddy was so much in love with her that he even agreed to her this attitude. Five years of live-in relationship - all sorts of doing crazy stuff together, madness and togetherness. But then a series of fights begin. Although the fights are not shown very evidently, these run in the background. Certain events turn the course of the relationship and Payal just vanishes from Maddy's life, goes away. In spite of Koyal and Vinay constantly asking Maddy to move on in life, he is not able to get over Payal. Koyal keeps reminding Maddy that he is not the perfect guy for Payal, there is a huge class difference between the two, Payal belonging to upper class and he to the middle class. Maddy is not ready to forget Payal, since somewhere he believes that Payal still loves him. Without knowing the whereabouts of Payal, he frantically starts contacting their common friends to know where she could be. 

Is Maddy able to locate her? If yes, how? Is he able to win her back? Do they dissolve their fight and say Batti to each other? How does Ricky (Vivaan) play his role in the movie? Does Ricky's presence help Payal and Maddy to reunite?

Imran gets majority of the screen time. Payal gets less screen time in comparison to Imran, and this definitely is not her 'queen' performance. Lot of characters are fillers. Boss of Maddy keeps calling him and his friend Vinay as his Rama and Lakshmana. But he is hardly able to generate laughter. Some other fillers are characters of Deepika (Maddy's colleague), friends Tina, Shweta etc. One more character that of a tortoise is there and how it becomes part of the film, watch it. I wish, Suneel as Maddy' s father, a great actor, had some substantial role to play. Shankar Ahsaan Loy' music is ok. The Sufi song sung by the FOSLA band (Frustrated One Sided Lovers Association) is good. Cinematography is good. I wish, the screenplay could have been a bit gripping with good sense of humour blended with emotions.

All of you may not like the movie, since it is not very high on entertainment quotient. You may like the movie for its last 30 minutes, if you are an emotional person and enjoy watching display of emotions on screen. I also felt that Nikhil took a safe approach to end the movie to show what actually sells emotionally. Overall, the film is OK.

Katti Batti, although with not so gripping screenplay, fares alright with the story blended with emotions especially towards the end of the film.

Rating: 2.5/5 (Average +)