It was a little while past sunset and the bus had picked up momentum on the winding highway joining Nagpur and Amravati. The prospect of being stuck up in a forty-five seater but (air conditioned though) for a whole night ahead of me was just sinking in. And just when I thought the claustrophobia would get the better of me, I heard the irritating, but welcome at that moment, sound of a Samsung DVD player being turned on.
A few minutes later, I read clearly from my seat (number two), the name of the movie being shown.
Ab Tak Chhappan
Sadhu Agashe and Francis had parked up at the dhaba. Their target was sitting on the table…. The movie had begun.
And just as silently it had begun, it ended. But my state before the movie was completely different from what it was at the end. What I had witnessed was the naked reality of a Crime Branch official's life, mixed with the necessary sensationalism in a movie. Hard as it was to see, the movie had stabbed a message into my mind.
The bus stopped at a dhaba itself for people to have their dinner. And I was out with my laptop, punching my review on the movie.
Ab Tak Chhappan- A review
Every movie has many facets. For a movie to be impressive, it must very appropriately cover all those. Though not many of our producers and directors haven't realized it so far, the basic ingredient to a good movie is a good plot. The next: appropriate script-writing that suits the plot. Then, conceptualizing the ideal cast for the movie. (Govinda as Sadhu Agashe would indeed have been appaling.) Then, we must have good special effects. Above all, the cast must support all this with their performance. And in the end, the film need not have music and, the most highly abused ingredient, women (which is a milder way of saying sex).
Ab Tak Chhappan- as a movie
The Plot
Ab Tak Chhappan has been made in a style I haven't seen in movies so far. It isn't the rambling and predictable progress that most movies made in India (and elsewhere for that matter) have. Nor does it have the completely unconnected events and unanswered questions like a lot of attempted-suspense movies have. Whoever wrote the script and plot has done a good job. Now you are naturally bound to ask me two questions:
Why do I call this a good job?
And
What is this plot anyways?
The first question answered:
I say that the plot is a good job for a number of reasons. The first, the movie shows what is probably the completely truthful picture of a policeman's life and the activities of the Crime Branch in general. It shows what the men and women in the office go through in their work, in their personal lives. It shows how they think, how they feel and how they live. Without making it look to stoic and without making the policemen look like martyrs, the movie shows how brave and surgical they are in their work.
It's not those soppy and gaudy patriotic police movies. It's a simple straightforward and an almost untouched slice of a policeman's life which makes it all the more impressive.
I choose to leave the second question unanswered. If it reveal the plot here, you might not feel the thrill of actually watching the movie.
The movie in general
Ab Tak Chhappan has this really realistic progress. One does feel like you're watching the events as they are, unlike what you feel when you watch other movies. In their case, you have the feeling that you're watching things ''as they happened'' and not ''as they are happening''. If you get what I mean…
The movie contains a huge amount of violence, ruthless violence at that. A killing every ten minutes.
Moreover, there isn't much drama before much of the killings, not many action sequences, then hero-to-villain dialogues, then the villain telling the hero how he completely missed the point and the hero giving the villain a lesson in patriotism. Every killing is plain- bullet shot, man dead, that's it. Jarring. It doesn't leave your mind. You reel in the hangover for a while.
A very well movie, indeed.
Ab Tak Chhappan- the actors
I've always adored Nana Patekar as an actor and in this movie, my adoration matured into worship. He has the most brilliant sense of an actor, an actor who had this greatness built inside him. When you look at the Patekar as Adashe, you don't feel it's Patekar as Agashe at all. You feel it's Agashe himself. Patekar truly brings the character to life.
He is the support and the main pillar in the movie. The entire tent of this movie stands erect with his support. Probably it is because a single very good actor can cast light on the others and make them look good like the sun brightens the moon. But every other actor also seems to suit his character.
The cast performance of this movie is simply impeccable. Every member of the cast has a natural way of acting. The viewers don't say- ''Nana Patekar shot dead Feroze and then he went on to Mauritius''. They say- ''Sadhu Agashe killed Feroze''. I suppose I make things clear here.
Hat's of Mr Patekar.
As an afterthought
Ab Tak Chhappan is one of those few movies that dare to have no songs. It also chooses to keep the romantic side of the characters away from the movie. The life of most policemen is scary, harsh and drastic. And so is the life of every character here.
The movie, however, leaves the viewer stunned under shock. The movie is grips the viewer's mind. It feeds on him till as long as it lasts. It makes him a part of it. And when it gets over, the viewers feel slightly devastated. Probably it has something to do with his acting, but Patekar involves the viewer with his character. So as the viewer watches every single source of his happiness getting destroyed within minutes, without drama, he feels the same sudden shock you can associate with touching a 2000V wire.
And in the end, I asked myself this question.
Does this mean the movie appealed to me?
Or was it just too appaling?
I could never figure it out.
