The Chummy Chhichhores!

Image courtesy: imdb.com

Chhichhore is not as much a film as it is a huge coloring book. Director Nitesh Tiwari draws an outline of his life in IIT Bombay on the canvas of the film and expects us, the audience, to fill in the colors of our choice. The characters are mere line drawings - a perpetually pissed off Acid, a Mamma’s boy Mummy, a drunkard Bevda, a horny Sexa - to which we’re to add in memories of our college friends, seniors, and acquaintances and bring in the necessary tone and vibrancy.

Life in college goes beyond lectures, as we all know, and Tiwari takes that line rather seriously too, for life for the Chhichhores begins before and after classes, but never during classes. In fact a dedicated viewer can count the number of times a classroom is seen onscreen!

Chhichhore rates high on the nostalgia factor purely because of Tiwari’s ability to get the audience to join and contribute in his trip down memory lane. Along with his co-writers Piyush Gupta and Nikhil Mehrotra, Tiwari keeps simple the story of a group of friends verbally recreating their attempts to shred off the Loser tag by trying to win the inter-hostel general championship (GC) to a troubled and ailing youngster. The film switches between the past (think 1990s) to the present (think current day, hospital and home scenes). Bonus points to the writers for maintaining the college lingo. Golden moments onscreen occur mostly in the second half, like the hilarious kabaddi coach and the 42-kilo weightlifting match, but the humor runs throughout the film. Additional brownie points to the makers for not adding an elaborate love song between Maya (Shraddha Kapoor) and Anni (Sushant Singh Rajput).

Image Courtesy: imdb.com

But a coloring book is not a Robert Ludlum novel. Chhichhore suffers from serious pace issues in the first half itself. The pace of the film infuriatingly dips after the first hour and selectively dips whenever the older versions of the characters appear onscreen. The predictability factor rates high too, which makes the slow pace all the more frustrating. The music is average, despite two songs from Arijit Singh. The exciting moments of the film only come in the second half, when the GCs begin (think an impoverished Student Of The Year. Part 1, not 2), but I could hear (and feel in my heart) cringes, whenever the old Sushant Singh Rajput came onscreen.

All the actors - Sushant Singh Rajput, Varun Sharma, Naveen Polishetty, Tushar Pandey, Saharsh Kumar, Tahir Raj Bhasin - perfectly fit in the slot of college students and look at home with the college surroundings. It seems serendipitous that Tiwari roped in certain actors who studied engineering as leads in this film! Prateik Babbar as the antagonist Raggie gives out a restrained performance, making me wonder about why he isn't in more movies as well as his anti-aging abilities! Shishir Sharma, known for his fantastic screen presence, only elicits grimaces because of his repetitive character of the serious doctor. Shraddha Kapoor is...well, Shraddha Kapoor, and possibly the only cast member in this entire bunch of people who does a good job as the older version of her character. Sorry, make-up department, but the older versions of the cast members looked like forty-year-olds in the 1990s - have you seen forty-year-olds now?

My beef with films based on engineering colleges is that every girl there is either a babe or a bore. Duh, not true. I won’t lie, I was kinda hoping Tiwari would shatter that myth, but the poor chap is from IIT, can’t blame him. Going by this logic, Shraddha was the perfect casting choice for this role - all she had to do was doll up, smile, look sad and cheer. Sigh.

Overall Chhichhore isn’t a bad watch. It is quite nostalgic, and the moral of the film (which is apparent within the first half-hour, TBH) is, well, acknowledged and kind of ho-hum. I’d have been happier watching it with a fast forward button though.

Best line: “Insaan loser ka tag pehenta bhi khud hai aur utaarta bhi khud hai”

P.S: Why should all ‘cool’ dads be the one willing to share a drink with their offspring? Do teetotaler cool dads not exist?