This movie has already wasted precious two and half hours of my life. So, if you plan to watch the movie, please be warned. I am honest in leaving my verdict at the beginning so that those who do not have the patience to read the whole review may skip reading and skip buying tickets for this so called ‘blockbuster’ called ‘Chhaava’.
Seeing where this nation is heading to and how Bollywood is minting money by fooling the people or by distorting history to this extent, I feel sad for the future generations. Our knowledge has come to such nadir that Sambhaji who was known for his hedonistic behaviour, debauchery and who was even arrested by his illustrious father Shivaji Maharaj or who even defected to the Mughals for personal gains, has been portrayed as a saintly warrior and none raises any objection to such a distortion of facts. We have seen the quality of biopics being made in India. We have also seen how Pakistan bashing has become our only agenda while making movies. But distorting history to this level ! Are we not unswerable to our kids ?
The movie from the very beginning loses its grip over the plot in an attempt for glorification of the central character. The opening fight scene is ludicrous and in an era when combat movies have been taken to altogether new level in international cinema by the likes of ‘John Wick 4’, ‘Raid Redemption’ or even the latest ‘Covenant’, such poorly shot action scenes made me laugh loudly in the cinema hall. In every scene, there is a distinct effort to please a section of the society. The character building is pathetic and the efforts to arouse emotion at every scene when the protagonist meets his near and dear ones lands miserably. Such a movie needs strong music or background scores to remain etched in viewer’s hearts even with all its flaws. This movie fails there and even AR Rahman the great is just a shadow of his glorious past. The opulence and grandeur needed to take such period movie to a new height is missing and its evident that the makers did not want to invest more in designing the sets. Their agenda was altogether different.
Only saving grace? The acting of Vicky Kaushal. He makes even such a thinly built character alive with his brilliant acting skills. This man with his range of acting never fails to amaze me. He made me awestruck in Sam Bahadur. And he does not fail to deliver here as well. Akshay Khanna as Aurangzeb is okayish but he pronounces every word so artificially that mostly you do not understand what he is saying. Rashmika Mandanna is just a cheap ornament as she always has been in all the movies she has featured so far. I wonder how on earth with so little acting skills, she is bagging all such roles.
By the way, in those last 35 minutes when Sambhaji was being tortured by Aurangzeb, the director leaves no stones unturned to torture the audience. You will understand what I mean if you can bear with the pain till then. No pun intended. If someone has harmed you, take a sweet revenge by gifting him or her a ticket of this show of buffoonery.
Do yourself a favour. Instead of watching this piece of Sh*t, you watch movies like ‘Glory’, ‘Saving Private Ryan’, ‘Downfall’, ‘Hidden Figures’ or ‘Platoon’ to understand how movies on history should be made.
My rating- 2 out of 10 ( One star for Vicky Kausal and the other is for those numberous crew members trying so hard in the battle scenes.)
#Chhava #Sambhaji #VickyKaushal
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