'HIT: The Third Case' Movie Review: Nani Goes For the Jugular in Blunt Action-Thriller

Director: Sailesh Kolanu
Writer: Sailesh Kolanu
Cast: Nani, Srinidhi Shetty, Prateek Babbar, Samuthirakani, Rao Ramesh
Language: Telugu

With the inclusion of an actor of the stature of Nani, who has also co-produced the film and the entire HIT franchise, HIT: The Third Case has authorised itself to raise the stakes considerably.

At 41, Nani enters the HIT universe as Arjun Sarkaar — a fierier, punch-throwing, punchline-loving cop from the Homicide Intervention Team. He’s a beast, but one with Nani’s signature quirks: comically single, active on dating apps, and unbothered by his age. While technically on the same team, Sarkaar has little interest in local transgressions like his predecessors; his gaze is fixed on grander, more menacing threats.

HIT 3 is different from the very outset in how it barters the sense of catharsis that defined the previous instalments for higher stakes. HIT: The First Case, in particular, showed how Vikram Rudraraju’s (Vishwak Sen) inflammable past drove him to peak madness, and the solving of the case proved to be crucial for his barely-there sanity. The film removed the objective gaze of a police officer and made things incredibly personal, setting the precedent that the investigation is a mere tool for survival for the protagonist. The same approach felt diluted in HIT: The Second Case (led by Adivi Sesh), but the ethos was apparent.

The Third Case, though, rids itself of suspense (from its tone and plot) and goes straight for the jugular. Arjun Sarkaar carries the weight of his heavy name and attitude with a scowl and a strut that is always ready to leap at a target. His infamous method of using violence first gets him in the thick of social and political tensions in Kashmir (having upset the ‘Azaad’ Kashmir movement), before it pits him against a barbarous cult of killers.

A still from 'HIT: The Third Case'.

The primary concern lies right here, with writer-director Sailesh Kolanu using the world around his central character as a placeholder and not as an entity that influences the narrative. If Kashmir’s extremely relevant crisis gets a wishy-washy handling, the entire idea of employing a community of serial killers feels for pure effect alone. We get new angles like international organ trade as part of the deal, but it comes off as ornamentation that offers little insight into Arjun Sarkaar’s (or the film’s) worldview.

At the same time, the flimsier emotional strength of the film reveals a dimension that the other instalments only sparingly boasted: a kind of righteous intensity translating into absolute wrath. HIT: The Third Case was always meant to up the ante and an actor like Nani shedding his boy-next-door image (Saripodha Sanivaaram warming us up to the transition) in exchange for violence and gore was to be the ultimate feature of the film. Where Kolanu surprises us is by dialling up the rampage and not flinching at any point.

A still from 'HIT: The Third Case'.

With what feels like an amusing touch of inspiration, he stages the drama in the second half in a Squid Game (or Géla Babluani’s 13 Tzameti (2005), if you will) manner. Survival amidst a legion of psychopaths becomes the order of the day for Arjun Sarkaar and the film, too, rises impressively to the occasion during these portions; Sanu John Varghese’s cinematography finds a hectic clarity as it navigates Sri Nagendra Tangala and Laxmi Tamang’s (as associate art director) faded ruins of an old Burmese Palace, with the story relocating to deep forests of Arunachal Pradesh. And just as Nani goes for broke in smearing his pristine image with blood (and lots of cussing and cigar smoking), music composer Mickey J Meyer, another emblem of tranquillity in Telugu cinema, throws up the biggest surprise with a blaring soundtrack to match the onscreen chaos.

What HIT 3 could have done to accommodate its new persona is build a deeper emotional foundation. For starters, the film’s main conflict feels commonplace considering the fact that today’s viewer is numbed out to any kind of crime or bloodshed on screen (the serial killer today is equivalent to the comedy sidekick). One supposes that the makers sought to deliver a full-throttle action spectacle in contrast to the more psychological makeup of the previous iterations. Yet, the lack of vulnerability in the protagonist, or the relatively lacklustre antagonism he faces, doesn’t give it the caustic edge that the film promised before its release. The stomach-churning violence finds its place in the narrative, but also feels unwarranted in the larger scheme of things.

Even Srinidhi Shetty’s role, although a welcome change compared to the scope she was given in the K.G.F films, has a run-of-the-mill quality - montage songs, obligatory action sequences, etc. , and could have either been reimagined entirely or extended for stronger resonance.

HIT: The Third Case is, in every which way, the product of the current times in that it could be easily chopped up into 1000 bits (or Reels), and each of them will work well in isolation. It certainly needed a more congruent, layered writing style, but still isn’t devoid of a few positives. More than anything else, it positions Nani as an actor who can crop up with any kind of film tomorrow: from a gore fest, to a coming-of-age drama to a possible blend of both. And that is something to look forward to.