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'Chhichhore' (2019) (dir. Nitesh Tiwari) is a campus film told entirely in flashbacks. 90s nostalgia is mined for those of us who lived through it and watched 'Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander' (this film's spiritual predecessor). The art design and costumes are spot on, mercifully showing us college hostels as they actually are and not without the usual Bollywood gloss. The colourful cast of characters surrounding the lead pair, though written as one-note, are brilliantly performed by ensemble actors such as Varun Sharma, Prateik Babbar, Tahir Raj Bhasin, Navin Polishetty, Tushar Pandey and Saharsh Kumar Shukla. The screenplay is taut, with the writing switching between present time and the past with pat ease. The message—that life is not about winning or losing—but simply living, is an admirable and much-needed one in today's competitive times.
The unfortunate problem with this film is that the lead pair (Sushant Singh Rajput and Shraddha Kapoor) fall short in the acting department. While the cast around them are pitch-perfect, these two ham through their parts, often overplaying their youthful exuberance and their later year anger and sorrow. In general, the film also suffers from a problem of tone: the younger years give us laugh-out-loud set pieces but the transitions to the gloom and doom of the present day are clumsy and uncomfortable.
Relatability is the film's strongest suit, but it is undermined by the melodramatic approach of the director. The reason 'Jo Jeeta...' works is because there is a lightness of tone to the message. Here we are served the moral in ham-fisted dialogues and preachy, emotionally-manipulative scenes. This is one of those few Bollywood films where it is not the writing that is the problem (it often sparkles!) but the treatment. Perhaps it suffered from trying to be many things. Campus camaraderie is usually effortless. Here, the effort shows, and while the film has some memorable moments, it never quite soars.
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Language: Hindi
Runtime: 2h 23min
Year of release: 2019 Streaming platform: Disney+ Hotstar
Hot take is a series in which I offer my first impressions of films from India and around the world.
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