Director: Prakash Kovelamudi

Cast: Kangana Ranaut and Rajkummar Rao. 

Judgementall Hai Kya Movie Review: Exhausting, But A True Original

Hindi cinema has an extremely dodgy record of depicting mental illness. Judgementall Hai Kya comes with an empathetic gaze, which is a big step forward. The ambition of the story – both in content and style – is very exciting. It dips and soars. Like Bobby, the film can be exhausting. But like her, it's also a true blue original. And you should give it a shot.

Judgementall Hai Kya Movie Review: An Original, Unsettling Take On The Modern Psychological Thriller

Mental health is a strange beast in mainstream Hindi cinema. Nobody is really diagnosed; conditions are character traits. People with antisocial personality disorder ("psychopaths") are usually villains – the films romanticize their ability to be manipulative under the garb of seemingly normal behaviour. Their illness becomes an "anything goes" narrative device. Then there's Parineeti Chopra in Hasee Toh Phasee, a 'genius with tics' heroine for whom love acts as a medicine. But Kangana Ranaut's Bobby Batliwala Grewal (of course she's half-Parsi) in Judgementall Hai Kya has more in common with Ranbir Kapoor's Ved from Tamasha. Ved's imagination – he turns to hybrid storytelling as a refuge – is an extension of his (unnamed) bipolar disorder. He revels in being different characters, anyone but himself. Bobby, too, is a Hindi dubbing artist who is seduced by almost every character she voices. She veers between acute psychosis and dissociative identity disorder, both of which are emotionally supplied by her day job; one day she is a mysterious mistress of a haunted mansion, the next day she is a rowdy rani. The subtext: Acting is nothing but a creative personality disorder.

Kanika Dhillon Interview

Judgemental Hai Kya Trailer Talk: A Weirdly Meta Clash Between Stars

The trailer of Balaji Telefilms' much-discussed Rajkummar Rao and Kangana Ranaut-starrer Judgemental Hai Kya(previously titled Mental Hai Kya) is not exactly what was expected. What was rumoured to be a rom-com focusing on the issues of mental health is actually, in part, a murder mystery.

On The Move with Ekta Kapoor

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