Chhichhore: Movie Review
Chhichhore is a latest youth-oriented comic movie from Bollywood. The movie starring Sushant Singh Rajput and Shraddha Kapoor is about a bunch of students living a crazy hostel life and how a tragedy brings their reunion in future. The movie has been directed by Dangal fame Nitesh Tiwari and has found appreciation from critics as well as general audience
Big budgeted star vehicles might be getting dusted at the box office, but Bollywood has been on a magical run as far as medium budgeted content movies are concerned. Between last year's 'Sonu Ke Titu ki Sweety' and this year's 'Batla House', the movie industry based in Mumbai has produced more than half a dozen such successful movies with 'Uri: the surgical strike' right at the top with a collection of over INR 240 crore. Chhichhore is the latest medium budgeted movie from Bollywood that has set the box office on fire. Starring Sushant Singh Rajput, Shraddha Kapoor, Varun Sharma, Navin Polishetty and Tahir Bhasin, the youth-oriented comic movie has been directed by Dangal fame Nitesh Tiwari. Let's review the moviePlot
The movie runs in two timelines. Sushant Singh and Shraddha Kapoor are a divorced couple who have a son named Raghav. Both his parents did their engineering from one of the finest institutes in the country and so Raghav is under tremendous pressure with regard to his impending IIT results. When he fails, he attempts suicide as he can't bear to be called a loser. He barely survives and is put into ICU. Regretting over the fact that he never prepared his son for a failure, Sushant starts narrating him the story of his college life and his group of friends called Losers. He introduces his wacky friends to his son and together they tell him the story of their lives in the campus and how they shed the tag of losers without ever thinking of giving up their life. Review
The trailer of Chhichhore was merely good and so a lot of hope was riding on the director who had given Bollywood its highest-grossing film ever. And yes, Tiwari delivers. Chhichhore is a winner all the way. The premise is not very different from 3 Idiots but this is always going to be a hindrance in the movies based on colleges and those questioning the education system and parental pressure. Writers need to find stories and interesting characters within those constraints and the movie does just that. Right from Varun Sharma's Sexa to Navin Polishetty's Acid, every character is brilliantly crafted which gives the movie an authenticity that can never be found in glossy, plastic crap like Student of the Year series. Two timelines run parallel to each other in the movie but they have been interwoven neatly and so the viewers don't get distracted or confused. There is enough of comic relief in the hostel life buffoonery. At the same time, the emotional scenes have been etched out well.
The casting is spot on. Sushant does very well in both the roles – an energetic young guy in love as well as a grieving father. Shraddha doesn't have many standout scenes but she is good overall. The real winners are the other members of the losers gang. Varun Sharma is a hoot and has got some of the best-written lines in the movie. Rest of the cast including Navin and Bhasin have played their roles brilliantly. After writing, acting is the strongest aspect of the movie.
Chhichhore is not without shortcomings. The ageing of the cast is not at all impressive and looks every bit artificial. The songs too don't have that repetition value. The cinematography could have been better in many scenes. Especially the sports sequences towards the climax lack novelty and thrill. In spite of these shortcomings, the movie does well as an emotional comic entertainer. Unlike 3 Idiots, the movie just scratches the surface of the issues plaguing the students' mentality in the present scenario. But that is OK because the movie never tries to become preachy at any instant. I would rate it 3 and a half stars out of 5. If you miss your college life, in particular, your hostel days, then you should definitely watch Chhichhore.
From the review of the movie, it is apparent that one can think of viewing this movie for going back to the student days. The presentation of the movie in two distinct time frames and merging them together is a technique that many directors use and if done correctly it has a very good effect on the audiences. The fun and frolic of student life is unique and that is the thing which a director can show with much freedom and liberty while weaving his story and the actions in the flow of the events. Today in our country many medium budgeted movies are becoming hit in the box office and giving good returns to the producers and financiers. It is a good trend as it is not that everyone can afford to produce high budgeted movies. These movies which are different from the usual masala stuff are liked by the educated audiences and they prefer to see such movies with the family members in a relaxed environment.