Movies Review

Movie review Chopstick; The tarka is missing!

Abhay Deol, Mithila Palkar and Vijay Raaz, are three exceptional actors. From the trailer, it looked as if they have been selected for tailor made roles. Abhay Deol is an elusive con-man, with a good heart, Mithila Palkar is an immigrant in Mumbai, slugging it out in her 9-5, fighting with life and Vijay Raaz, a good with a chilly attitude but he aien’t no mass murderer. Yet the film lacks that togetherness and despite promises to be something unique, it becomes formulae. The long and shot of it is shown in the trailer. So, I am going to focus on these characters.

Palkar gets the meatiest character (Nirma). It’s hers story of transformation. In her past work, we have seen her act in a subtle manner. Things aren’t really in your face. However, here we are reminded time and again about her vulnerability and post transformation her ‘change’ is established a bit too strongly. It isn’t organic enough.

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As for Deol, too little time is spent on telling us about this ‘artist’. There is this need to make him look distant but even when the director explores the romantic angle between the lead pair, we don’t know if Artist is the right man for the sweet little naïve girl Nirma is. A myth is built around Artist and little substance is given to back it up. We never get to know the whys of his life. Vijay Raaz, is a less funny version of Majnu or Udhay bhai from Welcome. He has played this character multiple times and he doesn’t miss a beat. Yet, there is not enough for him to do.

The film from the beginning is driven towards its conclusion, a bit like season 8 of GOT. Its feels inorganic and set piece format doesn’t do justice to the talents of the cast. The Nirma joke, goat joke, are fairly overdone. There are some genuinely funny and quirky one-liners but there aren’t many to hold the film together.

Nonetheless, it certainly is better that what Bollywood has been churning out in the recent past. There are limited ideas in the film, director Sachin Yardi is married to them. The coming together of these three not so black and white characters is interesting. We are told that everyone has some good inside, yet sometimes we need to bend to the way the world is.

Chopstick is a decent one time Netflix watch, for a time you aren’t interested in looking to digest heavy content.

 

 

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