Chaurahen Review

A made-in-English film, 'Chaurahen' is one of those films which announce from a distance that 'Hey, I am an art film and am here to basically establish the director as a connoisseur of meaningful cinema'. Alas, but the trouble here is that this effort clearly shows, something which only takes the movie further down. Ojha had earlier made 'Aisha' which wasn't any great shakes either. However when one looks at 'Chaurahen', it only makes 'Aisha' seem like a far more accomplished work. And that by the way is not really a compliment!

The film is made of (now so passe format) four stories taking place in different parts of the country. There is an elderly couple (Victor Banerjee, Rupa Ganguly) in Kolkata who are living a life that is barely going beyond 'hi' or a 'hello'. The man of the house though has some spark in the outside world, courtesy an extra marital relationship with a 'firang' woman (Kiera Chaplin) who loves to have deep conversations around life. Then there is another couple (Soha Ali Khan, Ankur Khanna) in Mumbai who are so full of philosophy that they just can't seem to have one straight conversation that doesn't sound like a riddle.

While no one is seemingly happy in the world created by director Ojha here, there is further sadness out there in Kochi where a young man (Karthik Kumar) is trying to fight his own inner battles while also struggling to meet expectations of his family who are still mourning the loss of their other son. And then there is this short lived (though comparatively interesting) episode featuring Shayan Munshi who has shares a few platonic minutes with an elderly female (Zeenat Aman) which could have culminated into something special before Ojha sprinkles some philosophy here as well. Come on now!

With such storylines floating around, the film not just becomes dialogue heavy, it also becomes a painful saga. There is no transition between one scene to another (not everyone can be Anurag Basu who can cut it so beautifully, as he did in 'Life In A Metro' which was again about multiple stories) and moreover the narrative too hardly shows any push or growth as you only end up losing interest within 15 minutes of the film. Worse, you realise that only 15 minutes have gone by when you have genuinly started feeling at this point in time that more than half an hour has already gone by.

Not that the performances manage to hold you by any means. Even normally dependable actors like Victor Banerjee, Soha Ali Khan or Rupa Ganguly seem to have been robbed of their spunk. The only genuine moments are between Zeenat Aman and Shayan Munshi but they get lost sooner than expected. Ankur's transition from English to occasional Hindi seems jerky and fake while Keira Chaplin is hardly competent.

Yawn. And some more yawn. This is exactly what one goes through while watching 'Chaurahen' which, despite just about 90 minutes in duration, is an agonisingly slow moving, stretched and boring piece of cinema that is nothing short of an endurance. Okay, so it does come with an art-house tag to it and hence is expected to carry those nuances and touches (an obligatory ceiling fan shot being one such instance). Still, there has to be some real story in the offering here. Sad, but that seems to have been retained in just the director's head as the final results don't quite reach you as a viewer. At least for me they didn't!

Rating: *1/2