Amitabh Bachchan Does Parampara, Pratishtha, Anushasan All Over Again
Chehre Review: Rumi Jafry’s Chehre is a film that gives most of its talented starcast almost equal screen presence. Only if it could give them a tighter script, fewer monologues, and less dramatic shayri! And if it could also spare the audience the creepy laughter that Rhea Chakraborty‘s Anna throws everytime the camera pans on her and we are asked to think of her mysterious presence in a house where a few retired law veterans gather to continue to fight for justice in their own weird way! Mostly, by playing a game involving strangers. Emraan Hashmi, as Sameer Mehra, is that stranger. He always seeks a shortcut. This time though, his shortcut takes him to an eerie house where he is welcomed by the four oldies who convince him to spend the night at the house until the weather is clear.Also Read – Ahead of Chehre Release, Rhea Chakraborty Gives Sneak Peek Into Her Role in Upcoming Thriller
A retired judge (Dhritiman Chatterjee), public prosecutor (Amitabh Bachchan), defense lawyer (Annu Kapoor), and an executioner (Raghubir Yadav) – the veterans introduce Sameer, a hoity-toity CEO of an ad agency, to an interesting game wherein they enact a legal case and set up a courtroom inside the house at the end of which ‘the justice’ is delivered because no criminal can escape their ‘judgment’. Also Read – Bell Bottom Movie Review: Akshay Kumar Brings a Full Paisa Vasool Entertainer
The best thing about watching thrillers is that you can expect the unexpected. There’s enough room for the weirdest twists in the narrative, new characters, sudden jumps in the story, and too much drama. Chehre tries to explore all of that. But, it doesn’t excel at any one of that. Despite having the superb performers with Annu Kapoor being his own entertaining self, and Raghubir providing the right kind of humour wherever required, the film seems absolutely dragged right from its first half. The game doesn’t even begin until the interval and you find Emraan Hashmi lost in the men’s club much like his character Sameer who is absolutely clueless about how this group of oldies is going to turn his life upside down. This could probably and easily be his 100th film where his potential as an actor seemed 100 per cent wasted. So much so that even in the scenes in which he is romancing a woman, he lacks the spark that used to be his trademark style setting the screens on fire. Also Read – Shershaah Movie Review: Celebratory Tribute to Captain Vikram Batra, His Bonds And Bravery!
Annu Kapoor is a total treat to watch though. The actor nails his performance with his Punjabi accent on point and a constant smile on the face even when you know there’s something really dark that he’s hiding behind that smile. He is like that person in your team who always wishes so well for you in meetings but is secretly trying to sabotage all the opportunities coming your way. Neither Rhea (as the mysterious housekeeper) nor Krystle D’Souza (as a woman involved in an extramarital affair) does anything good for the story. The film, quite stereotypically and offensively, establishes women as either a homewrecker or a victim who will always need the care and protection of a man/men. When producer Anand Pandit said that Rhea has very little to do in Chehre, he was not speaking about her screen presence but probably meant how the writers couldn’t think of writing anything for her. In the non-misogynist world of Bollywood, any one of those five main characters could have easily been a woman because women are successful lawyers, and judges, – and they are also running big companies – but the writers could only see them as helpless housekeepers and gold-diggers in their story. Too much to expect, guess!
Chehre is wholly dominated by Amitabh Bachchan from the word go. A tall, handsome, prominent figure trying to prove just how he is too good for the modern law structure in the country – Bachchan as Latif is both calculative and manipulative. Remember Dara Singh from Jab We Met and how he used to say ‘Humari umar me ek hi nazar me pata lag jata hai ki ladka ladki ke beech kya chal raha hai…‘? Well, Bachchan is exactly that man in the story. It’s easy for him to judge a man in ‘ek nazar’. With a glass of rum in one hand, eyes that are constantly busy searching you inside and out, and a strong command over his shayri – the actor is captivating in every scene. But lengthy narrative and giant monologues let him down. Right before the climax of the story, the megastar is given around a 20-minutes long monologue that transports you back to the Mohabbatein days and you can imagine him giving a tight speech about ‘parampara, pratishtha and anushasan‘ and how the lack of it is killing the ‘insaaf‘ in our judicial system. His monologue uses more words like ‘adarsh, adhikar, vyavastha’ and that the judicial system will never become a slave to modern structures of justice. Too much melodrama, zero entertainment!
Chehre is a lost opportunity. It is unconventional but lazy. As if the actors there are performing for theatre, not for the screens!
Stars – 2