Hebbuli Cut movie review: Bheemrao’s film is a lesson on social injustice, but never preachy

Hebbuli Cut movie story: Vinay, a high-school student from an economically weaker family, hopes to impress a classmate by sporting Kiccha Sudeep’s trend-setting hairstyle from Hebbuli. She’s a Sudeep fan and has been carrying an image of the actor from Hebbuli around. Trouble is that the local barber Channa (Mahantesh), who runs the only salon in the village, will do it only for a princely Rs 500 and when Vinay has a head full of hair.

With hope in his heart, Vinay gets cracking on putting together the money, while also dodging his mother’s efforts to get his unruly locks cut by a door-to-door barber, whose last workmanship on the youngster’s hair had made the latter the laughing stock among his classmates. Can Vinay fulfil his wish?

Hebbuli Cut movie review: Officially, caste-based discrimination has been a thing of the past for almost as long as the country has been independent. But the harsh reality is that it remains just as prevalent in many parts as it was decades ago. If you’ve never encountered/experienced it, chances are that you may balk at the idea that debutant director Bheemrao presents in his film, Hebbuli Cut. How is this possible in this day and age, you may wonder. Well, it just is and the filmmaker picks one such tale to remind most audiences about this social evil.

If Hebbuli Cut is a call for action, it’s not in your face; in fact, all that Bheemrao does is present a set of events and leaves it at that. It is up to audiences to make of it what they will. Cleverly enough, he uses a pop culture reference to drive his point home, in a pleasingly entertaining manner; never once resorting to melodrama. This film, for the most part, is about a young boy aspiring for a hair cut that is out of his reach because it is expensive, with only the subtlest hints here and there about the undercurrent at play that denies him that stylish hairdo.

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The film is set in a village where caste divide is as deeply ingrained, as is religious intolerance. And yet, Vinay has apparently grown up blissfully unaware of his circumstances and his ‘place’ in this society. Considering that the chances of an overnight social revolution are slim, the expectation would be that the parents would have prepared their son about social structure and how to navigate it. Vinay is, after all, old enough to understand how his father, a lowly cobbler, is treated by most people in the village.

That bit apart, Hebbuli Cut was a largely entertaining film, with Mounesh Nataranga, as Vinay, doing most of the heavy-lifting. The supporting cast, including Mahantesh, Mahadev Hadapad, Ananya MK, Uma YG, Punith Shetty and Vinay are perfectly cast.

Hebbuli Cut movie verdict: An engaging and entertaining take on a social injustice with barely any melodrama makes Hebbuli Cut a good watch. That there’s no clear resolution in the end may frustrate those looking for a solid payoff, but that doesn’t seem to be the filmmaker’s intention. It’s up to the viewing audience to interpret the right and wrong of the events that unfold, provided that the populace that this is intended for watches it.