Kennedy (film)
Kennedy is a 2023 Indian Hindi-language neo-noir thriller film written and directed by Anurag Kashyap. It stars Rahul Bhat and Sunny Leone in the lead roles. The film marks the third collaboration of Kashyap and Bhat after Ugly and Dobaaraa.
Kennedy premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival on 25 May.
Premise
Kennedy, an insomniac ex-police officer who operates secretly for the corrupt system, lives in different conditions and goes on a lookout for salvation.Cast
- Rahul Bhat as Uday Shetty / Kennedy, an ex-police officer turned hitman.
- Sunny Leone as Charlie
- Mohit Takalkar as Rasheed Khan, the corrupt police commissioner of Mumbai.
- Abhilash Thapliyal as Chandan, the brother of Gunjan.
- Shrikant Yadav as Abhijit Kaale, a sub-inspector of the Mumbai Police Department.
- Megha Burman as Anuradha
- Kurush Deboo as a bookie associate of Shetty.
- Karishma Modi as Gunjan Arora, a film actress.
- Aamir Dalvi as Saleem Kattawala, a gangster with ties to Shetty's past.
Release
The Indian premiere of Kennedy took place at the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival in 2023, where the screening played to a packed house and concluded with a standing ovation.After premiering at 2023 Cannes Film Festival and touring several international festivals, Kennedy became the only Indian film selected for the launch lineup of Letterboxd’s Video Store on 10 December 2025. This marked the film’s first wide availability to general audiences through a global TVOD release across 20+ countries, even though it was still not streaming in India. Director Anurag Kashyap welcomed the move, calling it a long-awaited chance for viewers outside festivals to finally watch the film.
after 3 years of preimered at Cannes, It will preimer in India on ZEE5 on 20 february 2026.
Reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 56% of 9 critics’ reviews are positive.Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV praised the performances and direction of the film and said that "the movie directed by Anurag Kashyap seldom takes a breath, which might be a little disconcerting at times. However, there is something alluring about a psychopath who vacillates between persistence and madness. Similar to the threat posed by a lethal, unseen illness that might be either biological or systemic, the hitman's brutal ravages. In this movie, the latter is more prevalent. Kennedy is ultimately just as much an Anurag Kashyap movie as it is a Rahul Bhat ride. The on-screen performance and the cinematic work are flawlessly balanced."