CHHAL:See it if you haven't!

Somewhere along the noisy mainstream shootouts, encounters, crime deals, narrative shockers, there comes a moment of human emotions that is brilliantly captured by a rather slick depiction, helped by the able talents of the lead pair(both pleasantly male in this case). A plot which looks rather simple from the outside unravels itself layer by layer and grows in interest levels. There is no visible attempt at gloss or glorification of evil. The film smells of visionary directorial streaks of cinematic possibilities of magic- in the slanted angled shots, the allusions to Verma’s cinema, ‘tujhe dar nahi lagta’ re-runs etc. The music is another winner. The internal conflict of the cop in disguise is non-dramatically and realistically done by KK, in another of his unknown gems.

One can almost tell that many a scenes were improvised on the sets as they work in a natural conversational manner without any concrete emphasis on the ‘dialogues’. The undercurrent of ‘fear’ is another noticeably well captured aspect. KK flashes brilliance in his confrontational scene with Padmini, Girish’s (character played by Prashant Narayanan) sister. The splicing of sequences is ably backed by the rich and innovative background score.

The film runs a fine balance, all the more pronounced in one of KK’s lines, “Underworld aur police sab ek jaisi hain”. Narayanan gets to do an extended version of his “Waisa bhi hota hai Part II” portrayal. In another interesting story twist, KK begins to question his own loyalty for Girish. There is also a visible influence of the Hollywood Gangsta flick genre in the themes of betrayal and loyalty resurfacing in oscillation. The characters are rich and deeply textured and finely etched out. Narayanan is comfortably settled in his madness well countered by KK’s subtle and searing anger. So who is better? Take your pic!