Chal Pichchur Banate Hain (2012) Review by Shivom Oza – ‘Pichchur’ Ain’t Good Enough

1.5/5 Stars

24-year-old MBA graduate with a lucrative job offer and an opportunity to go to London squanders it all away to pursue his passion – filmmaking. Not too different from the recent Suniel Shetty-Rajpal Yadav starrer ‘Mere Dost Picture Abhi Baki Hai’, albeit with a better premise.

The first 15 minutes of the film held some promise. The opening credits have been well shot. The music is pleasant and Rahil Tandon has done a tidy job. However, the story and the performances of the supporting cast are a big downer. There are a handful of decent moments in the film, but it’s just not worth your time and money.

Suraj Kumar (Rahil Tandon), an MBA-graduate, has an offer to go to UK with a salary of 5,000 pounds but he gives it all away to pursue a career in filmmaking. He wants to become a writer-producer-director and his only learning has come from watching countless movies ever since he was a kid.

However, in the bargain, he loses his girlfriend, best friends and family’s trust. Upon entering the ‘big bad world of Bollywood’, Suraj realizes that being a filmmaker is not as easy as he made it out to be. He encounters strange personalities such as the maverick money launderer Shakti (Sheikh Arif), the high-handed producer Irani (Shahnawaz Pradhan), the shady middle-man Mansoor (Mukesh Bhatt) and the self-proclaimed genius Khanna (Punkaj Kalra). So, he gets pushed from one set to another. No one is willing to promise him a break and everyone just wants to get their work done. So, Suraj puts up posters, helps actors with the lines, cajoles heroines into coming for the shot, attempts to write his own scripts, but nothing seems to impress the ‘big shots’ of the industry.

There’s another shocker coming his way! His father owes a family-friend-turned-foe Ramani a lump sum of 10 lakh rupees. It boils down to Suraj to be able to collect enough money to repay the debt. So, his passion now turns into desperation. He can no more afford to be choosy and has to adjust to the way in which the industry functions. This is where the film loses steam. There’s a ladylove too, called Melrena (Bhavna Ruparel). For some reason, the romantic angle looks forced. Overall, the story becomes repugnant after the basic premise is settled.

Rahil Tandon is promising. He displays great range in his acting. Yes, there are a few moments when the amateurishness shows up. However, Rahil does a tidy job. Look forward to seeing him in better-written films. The female lead, Bhavna Ruparel, is just about average. Thankfully, there’s no hamming done but her performance isn’t noteworthy either. The character, Melrena, shouldn’t have been there in the film in the first place. The supporting cast is a bit of mishmash. A few artistes, who have also appeared in big-ticket films, such as Punkaj Kalra of ‘Rock On!!’ fame and Mukesh Bhatt of ‘Rocket Singh – Salesman of th Year’ fame, have performed well. However, a major chunk of the character artistes just fail to leave any impact.

The film offers a fresh take on a relatively ‘done-to-death’ topic. The cinematography (Hari Nair) is not quite up to the mark. There are innumerable intercuts being thrown in during conversational scenes. The makers must have thought of giving the scenes a seamless look, but the end result isn’t too pleasing to the eyes. The opening credits have been shot well. The music (Gaurav Dagaonkar) of the film is pleasant. With big names such as Sunidhi Chauhan, Kailash Kher, Shreya Ghoshal and Javed Ali, the line-up of singers is stellar. Although there isn’t any memorable number in the film, the music tailors smoothly into the screenplay. The aspect where the film terribly lets down, is the story and the dialogue. Pritish Chakraborty (Director, Story Writer, Screenplay Writer, Dialogue Writer), in spite of being completely in-charge of the writing department, fails to uplift the mood of the film after a promising start.

Despite having decent music, a passable lead pair, interesting concept and good production values, the film just fails to deliver. Not worth it! (First Posted in MSN)

Shivom Oza