Chaarfutiya Chhokare

Cast: Soha Ali Khan, Harsh Mayar, Seema Biswas, Mukesh Tiwari, Govind Namdeo, Suhas Sirsat, Umesh Jagtap

Writer/Director: Manish Harishankar

Producer: Vibha Dutta Khosla

Music Director/s: Abhijit Vaghani, D. Sameer

Singer: Malini Awasthy

Plot: Neha Tandon is an NRI girl who is coming back to India to start a school in her parent’s native village. Optimistic and happy about her endeavor, she is unaware of the hardships, obstructions and risks awaiting her in this small serene village.

Her meeting with three boys Awadhesh, Hari and Gorakh is pleasant and happy but it’s the beginning of a nightmare. Hardcore criminals, these three boys become center of her activities. She vows to stops the criminal and sexual exploitation of children in the village. Her meeting with Janaki – mother of one of the boy, Awadesh- explains the deeply embedded political-criminal nexus in the system. Neha is resolute to free the three of them from the world of crime.

Will she succeed or she will have to accept the terms and conditions set by criminals in the region? Will there be a revolution of change in this small village?

Rating: 1.5/5 Stars (One and half stars)

Star Cast: Soha Ali Khan, Harsh Mayar, Seema Biswas, Mukesh Tiwari, Suhas Sirsat, Umesh Jagtap

Director: Manish Harishankar

What’s Good: It’s a well intended film that has its heart in the right place.

What’s Bad: Everything else that qualifies as essential from a cinematic perspective.

Loo break: Far too many.

Watch or Not?: Low budget cannot be the reason to make bad films and frankly it has nothing to do with a film’s soul. Chaarfutiya Chhokare is a soul-less movie that is badly shot, largely incoherent and has terrible actors who over dramatize the matter at hand. No one except Seema Biswas worked for me. Too desperate to be gritty, the film lacks both depth and authenticity. I wish I had any kind words to say but this is a misfired product that despite its good intentions fails to deliver.

User Rating: 

Neha is a software engineer who comes down to India to pursue her vocation as a child activist. She visits a small village in Bihar with the intention of opening a school there for children. Soon into the way of life there, she realizes the kind of criminal activities taking place there.

From contractors killing each other to child trafficking to young children resorting to guns, everything illegal exists in this village. Neha has her heart going out for three kids who are notorious murderers for all but are actually children, whom she believes can be saved.

It is a social war against a corrupt system and will Neha rescue the three ‘Chhokare’ is the crux of this film.

Chaarfutiya Chhokare Review: Script Analysis

The script at hand was a powerful one but the story loses its steam soon enough. My biggest problem with the script was its lack of genuinity. It reads fake in bold letters. People die, girls are kidnapped but you’ll find it hard to empathize with the characters. Feeble sympathy at best. But I am not sure, the script is to be blamed for it. The script functions on convenience and the very fact that a posh Neha played by Soha Ali Khan is loitering around in a notorious village minus any backup or support is something that logic doesn’t allow me to buy.

Violence is a norm in the small village and the top goon adopts three young children to make them into his hired killers. Guns talk in that part of the world, agreed. But the ease with which the children turn into gangsters wasn’t well explored. The execution lacked conviction and that clearly showed on screen.

The film from time to time drops its tempo but the worst thing was that nothing shocks you, not even the climax. The thing that could have made you weep doesn’t affect you much. For me it was a decent story badly told. The film exhausted me to the hilt and beyond that I couldn’t care about what happens to its characters. By the time the end credits roll and the statistics flash on screen, you can’t even look but they are mere numbers for you because the film would have worn you out that bad.

Chaarfutiya Chhokare Review: Star Performances

Soha Ali Khan was clearly not the right cast for the film. The actress has good caliber but she is more often than not a director’s product. In this film, her plusses were left untouched. She is subtle in a loud film, underplaying herself in an overdramatic movie. Does she work? No. She looks out of place and wrong.

Harsh Mayar, Aditya Jaiswal and Shankar Mandal have too little to do. They were expected to walk around or run around with swagger, holding guns that seemed too heavy for them. And what about their dreams and aspirations, the kind of people they wanted to become? The director thought detailing his titular characters would be trivialities he shouldn’t waste much time on.

Seema Biswas is the only brilliant thing about this film. When the script is dissipating, she holds it up with valor delivering a real, gritty and believably honest performance.