Chhalaang: Simple Tale Well Told
Yogendra is freelance writer
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By Yogendra
First publised on 2020-11-17 10:25:51
About the Author
Yogendra is freelance writer
View all posts by this Author
Chhalaang (an Amazon Prime original film) is a simple tale well told. With many such peppy films made in the past, it might give sense of deja vu but its setting and the message it conveys is totally different. Mahinder alias Montu is a PT teacher in a small-town, co-educational school in Haryana. He got the job as he was an ex-student and his lawyer father knew the principal. He is neither qualified nor does he serious about his responsibilities.
Among his few friends he counts another teacher who is much elder to him, Shuklaji (Saurabh Shukla) who acts as his friend, philosopher and guide. Since Shuka's wife had left him, Montu's mother is irked by his presence as she thinks that Shukla is not letting her son get married. The scene where Montu's father (Satish Kaushik) points out to Shukla that he is a "randva" is hilarious. Shukla eggs on Montu to play the moral police on Valentine's Day but things take a serious turn when he 'exposes' a middle-aged but married couple in a park and gets their picture published in the newspaper.
Enter Neelima, or Neelu (Nushrat Bharucha) as the new computer teacher in the school. Montu falls for her but she is the daughter of the same couple that he had embarrassed in the park. She lets him know what she thinks of him in no uncertain terms. But Montu is so smitten that he makes it his life's mission to win her. Things get competitive when the principal (Ila Arun) appoints a senior NSIS-trained PT teacher Aakash (Md. Zeeshan) and asks Montu to work under him as assistant.
Montu is devastated as it will bring him down in the eyes of Neelu. She also knows Aakash as he was senior to her in college. She starts going home on his bike which further infuriates Montu. He thinks of leaving the job but Neelu calls him a quitter. So he decides to challenge Aakash to make two teams and have a competition. The film then moves on to the training and competition part but not before the inbuilt prejudices in Indian society, like studies above sports, boys touching girls, boys and girls playing together and others are seamlessly woven in. Neelu, Montu's father and Montu apply saam, daam, dand and bhed to bring around the parents and the competition takes place.
The acting is top notch. Rajkumar Rao is brilliant as the carefree and irresponsible teacher who is transformed by love. Nusrat looks beautiful but supports Rao well. The scenes between Montu and his parents when they give him nuggets of advice are heartwarming without becoming sermons. Satish Kaushik, Saurabh Shukla, Ila Arun and Md. Zeeshan are their usual competent selves. The kids act well, especially Bablu and Pinky. The small town milieu is captured perfectly. It is a sweet film that can be watched with the entire family, though it could have been shorter by 10 to 15 minutes.
