Hunterrr Movie Review
SPOILERS ALERT
The big wide world may have seen a rash of sex addiction films of late (Shame, Don Jon, Nymphomaniac, Thanks for Sharing), but the most prolific movie industry on the planet has steered clear of the complex territory for obvious reasons.
Commercial Indian cinema is usually averse to themes that demand more than just nodding acquaintance with the psychological realities of deviant human behaviour.
First-time director Harshavardhan Kulkarni (writer of last year’s Hasee Toh Phasee) must, therefore, be lauded for making Hunterrr, a dramedy that takes a shot at telling the story of an average boy that grows into a deviant who cannot keep his mind – and hands – off women.
Unfortunately, Hunterrr (yes, the title has three r’s) is way off the mark. It isn’t utterly pointless, but it is neither hugely engaging nor particularly insightful.
The saga of the oversexed Mandar Ponkshe, despite Kulkarni’s efforts to keep it real and believable, ends up as an overlong, meandering mess that seems to be out to make a serious affliction the butt of ridicule.
The screenplay, written by the director himself, straddles more than a quarter century – from 1989 to 2015.
It is crammed with allusions to Bollywood and other cinematic signposts that would have been an inevitable part of the growing up years of the generation portrayed in Hunterr.
At the earliest point of the narrative arc, the film is about an adolescent Mandar and two schoolmates grappling with the onset of sexual awakening.
Their raging hormones push the thrill-seeking boys into many an embarrassing misadventure.
His two friends manage to shrug off the obsession, but Mandar continues to hit on every girl/woman that he sets his eyes on until the propensity takes the form of a full-blown behavioural disorder.