Kamthaan

Kamthaan is an Indian Gujarati crime comedy film directed by Dhrunad Kamle and produced by Abhishek Shah and others. It is written by Kamle, Shah and Jaswant Parmar with additional screenplay by Biren Kothari and Urvish Kothari. It stars Hitu Kanodia, Sanjay Goradia, Arvind Vaidya, Darshan Jariwala in lead roles as well as a large number of actors in supporting roles. It was released on 2 February 2024.

Plot summary

In 2000, Anjanipur, a thief does a robbery in a house of recently promoted police officer. The thief and his head tries to hide the stolen item while the police which tries to recover the item and arrest them. The chase results in a chaos.

Cast

The film features large ensemble of cast of around 50 actors.
The lead cast include:

Hitu Kanodia as Police Inspector Satrunjaysinh R. Rathod
Darshan Jariwala as Head Constable Prabhusinh
Sanjay Goradia as Raghabhai Dahyabhai, thief
Arvind Vaidya as Chhanalal Koyo, leader of the thief community
Deep Viadya as Tribhuvan Pandya, a Police Constable
Krunal Pandit as Jayanti Jagrut, a journalist of Sinh Garjana
Tejal Panchasara as Champa Champaneri, a social activist
Shilpa Thaker as Panni Foi, a bootlegger

Supporting cast include:

Kamlesh Parmar
Jassi Gadhvi as mother of Panna Foi
Kamal Parmar as a tea seller
Hemin Trivedi as Kenio, a banana seller
Jay Vithlani as Dr. M. D. Desai, a doctor
Kiran Joshi as Bhogilal Patel, a police officer
Tushar Dave as MLA Makuji, a politician
Pankaj Soni as Pappu
Pralay Raval as Uko Chitabhai
Mehul Barot as Dhulo
Prashant Makwana as Dhamo Ricksawwalo
Ansu Joshi as Gala Bechar, a thief community member
Production

The film was adapted from a novella by Gujarati writer Ashwini Bhatt published in 2001. It is directed by debut director Dhrunad Kamle and produced by Abhishek Shah who previously produced Hellaro. The screenplay was written by Dhrunad, Abhishek Shah and Jaswant Parmar. The film is based in Charotar region of Gujarat and depicts its culture, clothing and dialect. It was shot in Vaso near Nadiad. The film is based in the time period when the novella was written.

Soundtrack

said that he researched small-town music as it was 23 years ago when the novella was written. He used local "band baaja" instruments and Indian banjo in songs and background music. "Parsang" is played during an engagement scene in the film while two other songs are used as background score. Actor Maulik Nayak debuted as a playback singer.

Marketing and release

The film title was announced on 6 November 2023. On 18 December 2023, the first poster of the film was released. The teaser was released on 4 January 2024. The trailer was released on 19 January 2024. The film was released on 2 February 2024.

Reception

Kanksha Vasavada writing for The Times of India rated it 4 out of 5. She praised the direction, script, music, screenplay and performances. Nirali Kalani of Mid-Day Gujarati rated it 4 out of 5. She praised the performances of lead as well as supporting cast, direction, cinematography, soundtrack and dialogues but criticised the slow first half. She also noted it as a political and social satire.