Hunt Movie Review

Story: A police officer loses his memory after an accident; he must retrace his past to find answers he seemingly already has.

Review: Hunt, directed by Mahesh Surapaneni, is the remake of 2013 Malayalam, Prithviraj-starrer Mumbai Police. Now, if you’ve seen the original, you already know how this film will play out. If not, the film is an investigative drama that unravels slowly and steadily.

ACP Arjun (Sudheer Babu), Commissioner of police Mohan Bharat (Srikanth) and ACP Aryan Dev (Bharat) are steadfast friends who always have each other’s backs. Nicknamed the ‘Mumbai trio’ by the press for their past in the Mumbai counterterrorism squad, they now spend their mornings chasing down petty goons and lifting a drink or two come evening. Arjun meets with an accident and loses his memory.

Unfortunately, it’s more than just his job at stake because he holds the clue to solving a mystery that’s important to the friends. As he slowly tries to trace the important moments of his life, Arjun might just end up finding an answer he doesn’t like.

Hunt doesn’t waste any time getting into the thick of things. Barring an unnecessary special number featuring Apsara Rani, it also doesn’t dilly-dally with the usual niceties of a song, fight, punch dialogue, et al. And while that ensures the film sticks to Arjun and his predicament for the most part, it unfortunately doesn’t always make for engaging cinema.

The way the story is sometimes dry and while the lead character gets emotional at times after his memory loss, it's not enough to move you because he's usually morose. The non-linear narrative might also not sit well with everyone, but it is necessary to the story. Red herrings are thrown up in the form of Roy (Mime Gopi) and Colonel Vikram Singh (Kabir Duhan Singh) but that doesn’t engage much.

Also setting this film apart from the usual investigative dramas is the fact that Arjun is a very unlikable character. The more he starts finding out about his past, the more you tend to dislike him. He revels in toxic masculinity, uses the word magadu unironically at least once, mishandles his suspects irrespective of gender and is just all around a brash guy, except for when it comes to his friends and their better halves. Honestly, that's refreshing.

Hunt doesn't glorify his behavior, he's even called out by a fellow officer in a scene. What's odd is how Mohan keeps asking a man who lost his memory, “Evaru ADI,” (who’s that) whenever he speaks to an unknown person. Arjun can't remember anything, that’s the point! A stand-off between the army and police departments looks silly, while a terrorist angle feels force-fitted to bring the story to the climax in a round-about way.

Without giving much away, it’s important to talk of how this film features a homosexual character. While it’s great that an effort is being made in mainstream cinema to represent the LGBTQIA+ community, the representation seems to veer between spreading awareness and borderline homophobia.

There’s a particular scene where the homosexual character dry heaves after realizing their sexuality, which can be read two ways. Mahesh never puts in the effort to veer the audience towards how it should be interpreted. There's also a scene that seems to endorse homosexuals staying in the closet.

It truly is a head-scratcher. While any representation at this point feels like a win, not to mention how it’s all unraveled without too much hoopla, it begs the question if the film should have spent more time exploring internalized homophobia.

Sudheer Babu, Srikanth and Bharat do a good job. Arjun is the brash one, Mohan the mature one and Aryan the meek one compared to the other two. They give their all to it and make you believe in their equation with each other.

Abhijeet Poondla is given a cookie cutter role and the rest of the cast do their best with what they get. Ghibran’s background score, apart from Arun Vincent’s cinematography, have nothing to write home about.

Hunt is the kind of investigative thriller that does not depend on the usual hi jinks. If you’re looking for something different from the usual fare, this is it.