The revolution has begun against lousy leadership – on social media. Fed up with the chief minister of Karnataka, four Twitterati denizens decide to take action. Wearing Money Heist-inspired masks and red suits, the quartet led by radio jockey Pruthviraj (Prakash Belawadi) trigger a hostage crisis in a school in Bengaluru.
The chief secretary sends a secret agent to assassinate the militants. Meanwhile, dweeby arts and crafts teacher Gopi (Danish Sait), who mangles his English and mixes up his indefinite articles, rises to the occasion.
Nobody quite knows what’s going on, least of all the creators of the Kannada-English One Cut Two Cut. Directed by Vamsidhar Bhogaraju and written by him and Danish Sait, the Amazon Prime Video release is neither satire nor even basic slapstick comedy.
The demands of the hostage takers are scattershot, suggesting that protest is seriously overrated. Ban eggs from mid-day meals at schools! Ban migrants! Allow migrants! The best joke is that the dreaded agent (Vamsidhar Bhogaraju) gets stuck in one of Bengaluru’s notorious traffic jams on his way to his mission.
It’s an crashing bore, as Gopi might say. The actors, which include Samyukta Hornad and stand-up comic Vineet Beep Kumar, goof about as sportingly as possible. Danish Sait, with an Adolf Hitler moustache and browned skin, soon runs out of ways to make the same joke over and over again.
The 88-minute movie could have been a series of tweets with a few amateur videos thrown in. One Cut Two Cut isn’t remotely subversive. More seriously, it isn’t funny. Some revolutions should not be televised.