Kabir Singh
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A surgeon's possessive rage towards the woman he loves; a major box-office hit, widely criticised as misogynistic and defended by others.
Kabir Rajdheer Singh, the younger son of a business tycoon, is the brilliant, hot-tempered star of a Delhi medical college. Told to apologise for a brawl or leave, he is on his way out when he sees a first-year student, Preeti Sikka, and stays. He announces to the college that she is his. Timid at first, she goes along with his commands, comes to return his feelings, and they become lovers. He claims her in public and orders her about. When he leaves to specialise in Mussoorie, they keep the relationship going at a distance.
After Preeti graduates, her conservative Sikh father, Harpal, catches the couple kissing and throws Kabir out, and refuses him again when he comes back to explain. Enraged, Kabir slaps Preeti and tells her to choose between him and her family within six hours, or it is over. She cannot reach him in time. He lies unconscious for two days, and wakes to learn that she is being married off. He gatecrashes the wedding party, is beaten and arrested, and his father throws him out of the family.
With help from his friend Shiva he rents a flat and joins a private hospital, where he becomes a celebrated surgeon and a high-functioning addict, feared by the staff. He names his new dog Preeti. Desperate for sex, he threatens a woman into undressing. He begins an affair with a film actress, Jia, and drops her the moment she says she loves him. Called in on his day off for an emergency operation, he collapses; tests show alcohol and cocaine in his system, and at the hearing he admits everything and loses his licence for five years. At his grandmother's funeral he makes peace with his father and resolves to stop.
Then he sees Preeti, pregnant, in a park, and offers to raise the child with her. She rages at him for abandoning her, then tells him she left her husband three days after the wedding, has been working in a clinic, never slept with him, and that the child is Kabir's. They marry, the families are reconciled, and the film ends on a beach with the couple and their baby.
Starring
Shahid Kapooras Kabir Rajdheer Singh
A gifted, violent medical student turned surgeon who claims the woman he loves as his and falls apart when he loses her.
Kabir Rajdheer Singh’s story
Kabir is about to walk out of medical college when he sees Preeti, a first-year, and stays. He declares her his, orders her about and holds on to her through three years apart while he trains in Mussoorie. When her father refuses him again, he slaps her and gives her six hours to choose; she cannot reach him in time, and he lies unconscious for two days. He wakes to find her being married off, is beaten and arrested at the wedding party, and is disowned. As a surgeon he is brilliant, drunk and on drugs; he threatens a woman into undressing and drops an actress, Jia, when she says she loves him. He collapses during an operation and loses his licence. After making peace with his father, he finds Preeti, pregnant with his child, and marries her.
Kiara Advanias Preeti Sikka
A shy first-year student from a conservative family who becomes Kabir's lover and is married off against her will.
Preeti Sikka’s story
Preeti arrives at medical college timid and finds that Kabir has told everyone she is his. She goes along with his orders, comes to return his feelings, moves with him into the boys' hostel, and keeps the relationship alive through three years apart. When her father, Harpal, rejects Kabir, Kabir slaps her and gives her six hours to choose; she cannot reach him in time, and her family marries her off. As they beat him at the wedding party, she sits with her back to him. Three days after the wedding she leaves her husband, never having slept with him, and works in a clinic, carrying Kabir's child alone. When he finds her in a park and offers to raise the child as his, she rages at him, then tells him the truth. They marry, and her father apologises.
Soham Majumdaras Shiva
Kabir's loyal best friend, who houses him, covers for him and keeps trying to pull him back.
Suresh Oberoias Rajdheer Singh
Kabir's father, a business tycoon who disowns his son after the wedding scandal.
Arjan Bajwaas Karan Rajdheer Singh
Kabir's elder brother, who keeps ordering him to pull himself together.
Nikita Duttaas Jia Sharma
A film actress who begins an affair with Kabir and is dropped when she tells him she loves him.
Why it matters
Kabir Singh is Sandeep Reddy Vanga's own Hindi remake of his Telugu hit Arjun Reddy, and the question it forces is how a film should look at a man who treats a woman as his possession. Kabir claims Preeti before he knows her name, commands her, hits her and threatens another woman into undressing, and the film frames his rage as the measure of his love and rewards him with a happy ending. Many critics called it misogynistic: Anna M. M. Vetticad of Firstpost wrote that it glamorised the obsessive stalker hero, and Rajeev Masand that its most troubling portions were sold as intense love. Others, including Anurag Kashyap and Shahid Kapoor himself, defended it. It grossed over 379 crore rupees and was the first A-certified Indian film to earn more than 200 crore in India. A film so widely called misogynistic and so widely watched is the argument it left behind.