Chintu Ji

You may not have seen its posters on the walls or any promos running on the major T.V. channels, but “Chintu Ji” surprisingly manages to get released in a descent way among the other big banner flicks hitting the theaters this Friday. Coming from Bobby Bedi, the man behind movies like, “Bandit Queen”, “Mangal Pandey” & more, it was expected to be something fresh and out of the routine. Inspired from “The Man Who Came To Dinner” (1942), the plot is surely novel and interesting, but the treatment is too simple as compared to the current trends, lacking the essential entertaining comic punches required by the subject.

The story revolves around “Chintu Ji” the real life name of Rishi Kapoor, as he is fondly called by his family and friends in the industry. He plays himself in the movie as the superstar of yesterday now willing to try his luck in Politics. The residents of a small village called “Hadbahedi”, discover that it was their village, where Chintu ji was born and also named “Chintu” by an old lady of the village still alive. So, in view of drawing attention to the backward state of their village, all the residents invite Chintu Ji to visit his birthplace once again. Taking it as a good opportunity for launching his political career, Rishi Kapoor accepts the invitation and visits the village in his chartered plane. And then it’s all about how he manages to live in the tough conditions of the village, striving hard for his favorite liquor and non-veg dishes.

The plot had the capability to win over its viewers, but the execution makes it a little drag after a few initial absorbing moments. Performance wise, the film entirely belongs to Rishi Kapoor and his effortless act where he shows the other side of the famous public figures, not known to their numerous innocent fans. He carries the whole film on his shoulders getting ample support from Priyanshu Chatterjee and Kulraj Randhawa. Priyanshu, undoubtedly stands tall among the most under-rated actors of the new generation, who are sadly not being offered the right kind of projects to prove themselves. And also there was no need for an extra story angle related to his character in the movie. Kulraj Randhawa moves ahead from her punjabi projects and impresses to a great extent.

Music needed to be much better, thinking about the wacky song calling the names of all the world famous directors, included in the movie without any purpose. So this is one major department where the film lacks a lot. Cinematography is competent capturing the earthy locations in a fine way. Director Ranjit Kapoor had a good vision for his project but the end result could not emerge as a clear winner. In my opinion use of more quality comedy sequences related to the Bollywood Film Industry could have helped the movie a lot.

Actually the project belongs to the genre of “Welcome To Sajjanpur” released last year, which also talked about the life of different people living in a small village. But the finesse we witnessed in that Shyam Benegal movie is completely missing in Kaleidoscope’s “Chintu Ji”. Still you can watch it for a pleasant change from the regular stuff being offered to us every new Friday.

Rating : 2 / 5