"Chehre" | The turmoil of preachy courtroom game
After much delay due to COVID-19, Rumi Jaffery’s latest directorial ‘Chehre’ finally got released in the cinema theatres on August 26. The thriller stars Emraan Hashmi, Amitabh Bachchan, Annu Kapoor, Raghubir Yadav, Dhritiman Chatterjee in pivotal roles along with Rhea Chakraborty, Krystle D’Souza and Siddhant Kapoor.
For a change, the mystery-thriller begins with Amitabh Bachchan’s three-minute poetry on various faces or ‘chehre’ of human beings. The gist of his poem lays in the line ‘Jism chale jayenge, par zinda reh jayenge chehre’, which serves as the focal point of the whole movie. And let’s be honest about one thing: the megastar’s poetry is something that every fan swoons on! Besides, it easily kick-starts the film, making one wonder what lies next.
A young business tycoon Sameer Mehra (played by Emraan Hashmi) faces a life-threatening accident that almost kills him. He decides to stay at an isolated guest house situated in the middle of snow-covered mountains, where he meets the owners of the bungalow. The howls of cold wind and thunderous claps of clouds in the background add a perfect flair of mysterious atmosphere for a good thriller.
The four men - Paramjeet Singh Bhuller (Annu Kapoor), Jagdish Acharya (Dhritiman Chatterjee), Hariya Jatav (Raghubir Yadav) and Lateef Zaidi (Amitabh Bachchan) - decide to entertain themselves by tagging their guest Sameer into an unusual game - the game of mock trial.
With each scene slowly unfolding pieces of bitter truth, writer Ranjit Kapoor manages to keep the audience glued to a great extent. The story behind Sameer’s success after the murder of his boss raises questions in audience’s mind, which are steadily answered. Does he have blood on his hands or is it somebody else’s plan, Kapoor did a good work in building up the curiosity.
In the film, court game is similar to real-life court proceedings except the fact that the mock trials become preachy at a point. Seven-minute monologue on how criminals are not dealt with strictly under Indian law can kill anyone with boredom. No one loves being preached by truths that are never faced in the real-life court of law.
Amid the mess, Amitabh’s powerful and emotional dialogues, where he talks about the plight of the rape and acid attack victims, manages to save the film.
Story of Rumi Jaffery’s directorial boasts of the four lawmen performing self-righteous acts of correcting the wrong, and is nothing but a pure form of preachy fiction. Such films with powerful speeches can only raise hairs on the skin, not empower anyone to follow such paths. But if one watches ‘Chehre’ without much expectation, they won’t get disappointed. Performances are good, there are heavy dialogues, shayaris and what not to keep one entertained.
The supporting cast merely holds any importance in the story. For instance, the past of Anna (Rhea Chakraborty) plays a minor role for Lateef, who calls out Sameer’s insensitivity towards his unforgiving crime.
The same goes for Siddhant Kapoor, who plays a mute guy named Joe. His performance, without any dialogues, does not sit well in the film. Glowering at the protagonist isn’t enough to laud a new actor’s skills.
Only Krystle D’Souza makes quite an exceptional impression as cunning Natasha Oswal. She looks convincing in her performance.
Needless to say, ‘Chehre’ starts on a mysterious note, plays along on a powerful mock court session and ends up preaching one to take the law in hand.
