Review: Chaalaang

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Chaalaang is the classic feel good movie to be watched on a Sunday evening with the family around. Clean and largely expletive free, it works for an extremely strong cast to boot and a storyline though wobbly in some places makes up with the right screen time and good editing. A little over 2 hours the run time is just enough to keep you glued to the seat. Anything more than this it would have been like the other recent release; Ludo; where the extra 20-30 minutes from the middle drags the film down. 

Chaalang has an array of talent to boot. There is Saurabh Shukla, Satish Kaushik, Illa Arun, Jatin Sarna and of course Zeeshan Ayub Quadri (who cowrites the film too). Then there is a running chemistry of Hansal Mehta and Rajkumar Rao who have had an history of Omerta, Aligarh, Citylights... together. The weight of these actors and their chemistry wears down heavily on the frames of Nushrat Bharucha for whom after a time carrying it gets difficult and she seems to pale out. Chaalang has a great storyline and my sense would be that the same was not cultivated adequately. The story of sports in India and the rot stems from the schools where often sports is obliviated to the back burner and the step motherly attitude it receives. Second, the lack of support that the "potential" gets from the coach, parents and the school often sees talent fizzling out. Compare that to the US school sports program and one shall realise, why they produce gems. At the end of the film a line of Rajkumar Rao perhaps says it all; A Sachin, Virat, Dhoni and a string of names he rattled out needed talent and also the support of parents, coach and the school. Great lines and thoughts and this is where I thought the film could have worked on a little more. 

What does not work for the film. The songs and the music. Especially the songs which simply pulled down the cinema and broke the rhythm of the narration. The Luv Ranjan and the Punjabi song link is visible and is jarring. A message driven film like this would have no reason to add this as a deadweight. The last 20 minutes of the film was perhaps the last hour of the film. The penultimate competition in three categories were poorly filmed and seemed rushed and at times looked out of place too (the dogs barking to encourage the boy to run was one). The coach, chemistry and the effort could have synced well in the second half of the film. Pity it just about got 20 minutes of screen time. The boy (or boys) chases girl sequence in the first half wasted a lot of time.

However, the performances of Saurabh Shukla, Satish Kaushik, Rajkumar Rao, Zeeshan Quadri and Baljinder Kaur stands out for what is a definitive film to watch in these times where feel good is important and helps us tide through the pandemic crisis. Go Watch! Its on Amazon Prime.                

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