Chhatriwali Movie Review: Rakul Preet Singh's film is informative but lags in bits
Rakul Preet Singh's Chhatriwali aims at imparting a strong message on sex education. While it does succeed mostly, the film tends to get preachy in parts.
Here's the review
Short
Chhatriwali releases on Zee5 on January 20.
The film stars Rakul Preet Singh in the lead.
Chhatriwali has been directed by Tejas Vijay Deoskar.
By Anindita Mukherjee: How many of you still whisper while mentioning the word ‘sex’? How many of you lower your tone while uttering the word ‘condom’? If your answer to these questions is ‘mostly’, then we have a problem. And that’s what Rakul Preet Singh’s latest release, Chhatriwali tends to address. Starring Rakul Preet Singh as the protagonist and Sumeet Vyas in a pivotal role, the film is a decent watch with predictable parts. But was it a win? Let’s find out.
Chhatriwali is the story of a girl who doesn’t work at an umbrella factory (as the name suggests). The name is cleverly used for two purposes in the film – when Rakul (Sanya) lies and tells everyone she works at an umbrella factory because she is ashamed of telling people that she works as a quality supervisor at a condom factory. Secondly, condoms are also referred to as chhatri in most places. Hence, the usage. Anyway, coming back to the plot.
Sanya is terrific in chemistry, is respected at her workplace, but is ashamed of telling people about the condom factory. She gets married to Sumeet Vyas but he doesn’t know where his wife works until the very climax. A few struggles later, Sanya does manage to convince her family and society that talking openly about sex education and the use of condoms isn’t a taboo at all. That is one of the few problems with the film. It gets preachy in parts.
Chhatriwali delivers an important message. One of safe sex and usage of condoms. Still a taboo in many places, the film is informative and funny at the same time. Directed by Tejas Vijay Deoskar, the film sensitively portrays the ill-effects of frequent usage of abortion pills and textbook knowledge for middle school children. This is coupled with fun moments in between to cut out the seriousness of the issue. While we know that the film revolves around the importance of sex education, it does get a bit much in between.
The film starts off on a lighter note but tends to lag in parts. Certain contexts, such as Sumeet Vyas’ brother (played by Rajesh Tailang) refusing to talk about sex education in spite of being a biology teacher for middle school children, represent how most Indian households operate with the mere mention of sex. But that gets a tad overwhelming at times. Probably, a change in context or subject could have helped.
We would also like to give it to Rakesh Bedi’s cameo as a medical shop owner who is tired of people buying toothbrushes and mosquito repellents before finally asking for a chhatri (if you know what it means). That is the picture-perfect representation of the judgmental look one gets while buying a condom. Points to the screenwriter for keeping the realism intact!
Coming to the acting, Rakul Preet Singh shoulders the film with Sumeet Vyas’ support and does a decent job. However, we feel Rakul has better performances in her kitty. While Chhatriwali gets its flavour because of Rakul, we would cut a few marks for dialogue delivery and body language. Rakul wears high-end clothes at times and not-so-high-end at times, so we don’t know how to differentiate. That breakfast scene after wedding, remember? Sumeet Vyas, as usual, was yet another driving force in the film. Every time he appears on the screen, it lights up on its own! That’s just typical of Sumeet.
All in all, Chhatriwali is a decent weekend watch with predictable parts where everything falls into the right place towards the end.
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