Chhapaak

Cast: Deepika Padukone, Vikrant Massey

Writer/Director: Meghna Gulzar

Producer/s:

Plot:

Chhapaak Movie Review Rating: 3/5 Stars (Three stars)

Star Cast: Deepika Padukone, Vikrant Massey, Madhurjeet Sarghi, Ipshita Chakraborty

Director: Meghna Gulzar

What’s Good: Manages to move not only the human in you but also creates unrest to your physical stature while you’re watching the film, Deepika Padukone balances the performance smartly between emotional & disturbing

What’s Bad: When it ends, it leaves you with an incomplete feeling of how better it could’ve been & that’s not a good thing to exit with

Loo Break: Might tempt some but those who will enter knowing what the film is about will not need any

Watch or Not?: Watch it for Deepika Padukone’s performance & to gain some knowledge about certain traditional laws that make no sense

User Rating:

Revolving around the life of an acid-attack survivor Malti (Deepika Padukone), the story covers 13 years of her life. From the 12th grade when the incident happened to the hearing of her court case, we see the ups & downs of her life. It starts with Malti lookout for a job and bumping into Amol (Vikrant Massey). Amol runs an NGO named Chaaya who helps the acid-attack survivors.

Malti unites him in this cause and goes through the traces of her journey through the other survivors. She also gathers the courage of fighting for the PIL (Publish Interest Litigation) helmed by her for banning the open sale of acid. It’s all about what all she goes through with the fact that few drops of acid can’t take everything from her.

Chhapaak Movie Review: Script Analysis

Out of her two brilliant movies (Talvar, Raazi) before this Meghna hasn’t written any one of them solely. Talvar was Vishal Bhardwaj & Raazi’s story was from Harinder Sikka’s Calling Sehmat. Even in Chhapaak, she gets Atika Chohan (Margarita With A Straw, Waiting) on-board to help with the story & dialogues. She lays the base accurately managing the pace & is pretty successful till the first half. My immediate thought at the intermission point was – “Mostly everything is accomplished, what now?”

There are genuinely chilling moments that will force you to adjust your position. An interviewer ignoring to have food in front of Malti, someone labeling her ‘disabled’ & more such moments disturbs the human in you. I majorly have four problems with the script – sluggish courtroom sequences, Malti’s family was totally out of the focus, with the strong story comes the need for a strong climax & romantic angle works partially.

Chhapaak Movie Review: Star Performance

The character of Malti & the prosthetics required an actor who can normalise its complex traits. Deepika Padukone hits those levels at certain points. Meghna banks on her smile to lit up the screen & she’s pretty successful at it. Deepika successfully attains a huge task to maintain the balance between displaying the emotions and let her face do the talking.

Vikrant Massey gets a very half-baked character. He genuinely tries to fit in the story, but there’s no solid substance he could add during the major chunk of his screen-space. From the supporting cast, Madhurjeet Sarghi who plays the lawyer is phenomenal at what she does. Ipshita Chakraborty is brilliant in her cameo.

Chhapaak Box Office Review: Star Cast: Deepika Padukone, Vikrant Massey, Madhurjeet Sarghi, Ankit Bisht, Delzad Hiwale, Devas Dixit

Director: Meghna Gulzar

Producer: Fox Star Studios, KA Productions, Mriga Films

Chhapaak Box Office Review: Expectations

Chhapaak is a film about a major social evil and tells the story of an acid attack victim. The trailer promised a story that can be disturbing, moving and important at the same time. Chhapaak doesn’t carry any mass appeal because it’s not that commercial potboiler but a film that will make you uncomfortable.

Also, the film is clashing with Ajay Devgn & Saif Ali Khan starrer biggie Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior which will cut down its potential.

At Box Office, not much can be expected from the film. But Deepika is leading the cast so it should at least take a decent start and move towards a healthy lifetime total with good trending.

Chhapaak Box Office Review: Impact

Meghna Gulzar has proved her talent time and again with films like Talvar & Raazi. Talvar didn’t work at Box Office but with Raazi she did that as well. Now with Chhapaak, Meghna again tells a gut-wrenching story in an extremely sensitive and sincere way.

From talking about Malti’s fight with her identity and inner-confidence to her fight for the betterment of the system, Meghna has handled the subject with an ace. It’s such a beautiful thing to see that despite facing all the issues, she doesn’t miss any chance to smile, laugh and party.

Malti has been oppressed by society for her looks but it hasn’t been able to change her mind. She is still positive and has found her way out of the darkness for which the credit also goes to a few people close to her. Those people especially a relative and her lawyer played an important part in uplifting Malti when she needed it the most. These small but important things make Chhapaak an endearing watch.

Of course, the film could’ve been a bit pacy. It drags in between but never bores.

Deepika Padukone plays Malti to perfection. She is extremely sincere and doesn’t let the star in her come outside. Yet another brilliant performance of her career. I want to thank Deepika for playing this character. As Malti, she will evoke a new positivity and light among victims as well as oppressors. Whenever she used to smile in the film I felt like giving her a flying kiss while having tears in my eyes.

Vikrant Massey gives another beautiful performance. You will fall in love with his character and the way he nails it. His chemistry with Deepika is another highlight of the film even though it never tries to mess with the main subject.

Rest of the cast including Madhurjeet Sarghi has done well.

Music is situational but adds great value to the narrative. Title song gives you goosebumps.

Overall, Chhapaak is informative and hits you where it hurts the most. The film bashes the unnecessary male ego with perfect sophistication. It’s not dramatised yet moving. Meghna Gulzar does it again. Watch it for your own sake.

Chhapaak Box Office Review: Final Verdict

Chhapaak is set for a fair to decent start at the Box Office on January 10. The film will mostly appeal to the audience in Tier 1 centers. The makers haven’t tried to offend anyone and have remained honest to their job. This good and honest treatment that has been given to the film will ensure good word of mouth and strong pick up in the weekend. Chhapaak will then remain rock steady in weekdays as well as in the second week because there’s no major release on January 17.

It can do a lifetime business of around 60 crores.

Chhapaak Trailer Review: After Padmaavat, Deepika has been away from silver screen. It has been almost 2 years now and Deepika is back with her promise of Chhapaak.

The Meghna Gulzar directed film has been making headlines ever since its announcement. The first look of Deepika as Malti – the acid attack survivor was released earlier this year and was received warmly by the audience.

Now the team Chhapaak is here with the trailer of the film.

The film is based on the life of acid attack survivor Laxmi Aggarwal and I must say the trailer is successful in achieving its goal. The trailer is hard hitting, heart wrenching and extremely emotional which will make it tough for you to control tears.

Deepika as Malti does full justice to her character. From her prosthetics to her performance everything is on point and so perfect that it’s hard to not believe it. There are several moments featuring Deepika in the trailer which will stay with your for a long time and will leave a lasting impact on your mind. She’s a brilliant actor and she raises her graph with this one much more. Vikrant Massey is also promising as he has been seen in never before look. The kind of actor he is we can sure expect another beautiful performance from him.

Meghna Gulzar is coming after brilliant films like Talvar & Raazi and she seems to have got only better as a director. What more can I say?

Overall, Chhapaak trailer will make you cry and sit back and think for a long time before you actually come in your senses.

The first look of Deepika as Malti – the acid attack survivor was released earlier this year and was received warmly by the audience.

Rating: 4.5/5

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