Chhalaang – A review
In one word, Hansal Mehra’s Chhalaang is a confused film. It’s touted as a sports movie but it also incorporates various social/moral lessons, love story, protagonist’s journey to becoming mature but none of these themes are done full justice.
In my opinion, any film touted as a sports movie must enthral the audience. It must have them at the edge of their seat even if the outcome in most of these films is more or less known. Take any good sports movie as an example – Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar or Chak de – to understand my point. Here, that thrill is sorely missing and when it does ignite, the film has pretty much ended.
As far as the love story goes, it’s unnecessary. There is no reason for Nushrratt Bharrucha’s character of Neelu to be a romantic lead because she provides no catalyst for Montu (played very well by Rajkummar Rao) to grow up which aren’t provided by his family, mentor or best friend or even the anti hero. In fact, you wish they all had more screen space, specially the best friend Dimpy played fabulously by Jatin Sarna. Even the love story never truly blossoms and you are left wondering when exactly did Neelu become so important to Montu that she would affect him so much or vice versa!
The dialogues are what really take the cake in this film and they are delivered exceptionally well by the fabulous cast. Rajkummar Rao’s emotional scene with Satish Koushik will make your heart ache. Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub as Singh Saab is fantastic. I wish he had more to work with but as an anti hero – excellent.
Overall, the film takes up entirely too many issues to be able to tackle them properly. For instance Montu as a moral policing agent makes little sense nor does his rebuke to Shuklaji about the same cos they are simply not explored any further than 1 scene. Similarly the gender bias angle, the special needs children all seem to have been added in haste, almost like on the spot solutions to fill in the gaps which were realised only during shooting. Also for a man out of proper touch with sports, Montu quite quickly turns into an able coach. I would’ve thought that he would have had to work on himself as well as the kids…
PS – For a film attempting to champion gender equality, Montu’s speech at the end includes every character except his mother…why? Who knows.
Direction – Hansal Mehta
Starring – Rajkummar Rao, Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub, Nusshrrat Bharrucha, Satish Koushik, Saurabh Shukla
Available to stream on Amazon Prime (India)
