KENNEDY
Kennedy’s little murders, from Anurag Kashyap
In 2013, Anurag Kashyap was made a chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government at the 66th Festival de Cannes. India was also then celebrated on the 100th anniversary of the birth of its cinema. Ten years later, the filmmaker originally from Gorakhpur is back at Cannes at a Midnight Screening to present Kennedy, his 27th feature film, which depicts the spiral of violence that a mysterious man gets trapped in.
An old cop with insomnia, Kennedy (Rahul Bhat) has been presumed dead for years. However, in secret, he continues working for a corrupt system all while seeking redemption.
Part way between a thriller and a film noir, Kennedy depicts a violent and bloody vendetta on the dark streets of Mumbai. As the murders pile up, the character of Kennedy is further unveiled and is sucked into a chain of events from which there seems no way out. The story, written by Anurag Kashyap in a Mumbai under lockdown, is inspired by a character imagined by the filmmaker Sudhir Mishra and from a story Kashyap learned about in the press.
A pioneer of the Indian film industry, Anurag Kashyap still remains as one of Bollywood’s most influential filmmakers. Internationally acclaimed, his works allowed for his series Sacred Games to become the first Indian series produced by Netflix. Well-versed in dramas and film noir, the director presented Gangs of Wasseypur (2012) and Ugly (2013) at the Directors’ Fortnight. Several months ago, he tried his hand at musical comedy with Almost Pyaar with DJ Mohabbat.
