On high!. Review on Charas

On this precious Sunday I had decided to laze around and sleep for eternity at home! But it wasn’t to be. Early in the morning, my friend called up saying that he had booked tickets for Charas.

“Charas?”

“Who all are there in the movie?”

“Irrfan!”

“Only him?”

“”No no, besides him there is Jimmy Shergill, Uday Chopra, Namrata Shirodkar and Hrishitaa Bhatt.”

I exclaimed “Yaar, don’t you think we could have played carom instead at home or explored the new shopping mall at Vashi-Centre One instead?”

But I guess, it was too late and the tickets were already booked and it not a true samaritan

to refuse a good ol’ friend!

So there we were in a crowded Sunday evening show to watch Charas with a fully capacity crowd.

I am always been a true believer that if the first impression is good, the battle is almost one! And the movie started off well. Fast paced, good visualizations and good backdrops!

The story in a nutshell: Jimmy Shergill plays Dev, Dev Anand (lol!) is a Scotland Yard cop who comes to India on special mission as per the instructions of the British Government, to find out about an English Botany student- Sam Higgins, who had come to India to explore the plant but didn’t return back to his country.

When Dev Anand reaches the Himalayan mountainous region along with Uday Chopra who plays Ashraf Khan (whom he meets on his way from Delhi; Ashraf poses as a guide), he comes across a series of unexpected events. The whole region is being controlled by ‘Policeman’ played by Irrfan, who had quit the Indian police force due to some dissatisfaction with the Indian Government and become the Charas (Opium) drug lord in the region, which was mostly inhabited by westerners rather than Indians! Obviously, some corrupt politicians not only from India but also from the United Kingdom aid him. Enter some Afghani terrorists too!

As the plot thickens, Uday Chopra comes out as a ACP with the Delhi Police and Namrata Shirodkar with fancy dresses and ‘trying hard to be a dancer’ is actually a reporter for a magazine (Outlook, was it?!) Hrishitaa Bhatt’s role is of a pretty lass in the region helping outsiders reach Irrfan for business proposals- a confusing role, I felt. But she looks gorgeous, I must say....I didn’t think of her to be this pretty before I saw this movie! Hey Hrishitaa, if you are reading this review, please M2M me!

And the end, the student is found, the Afghanis are slained, love triumphs- Uday- Hrishitaa and Jimmy- Namrata and Irrfan commits suicide! Sound’s familiar to a typical Hindi flick?! It is, but I liked it so did my friends. Reasons? Well, here they are:

1) Realistic portrayal for an almost 2 hours movie. Yes, no superman-ish or super-natural characterisations, I thought!

2) The locales were awesome. Dear readers, don’t we find nowadays a lot of Bollywood movies are shot in the mountainous regions of Leh, Ladhak, Kullu, Manali, Shimla, Darjeeling?! Not a bad idea when the scenics look so beautiful! Take for example the SRK movies like Dil Se, Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman and now the recent Main Hoon Na. Also, Paap and this one!

3) Yash Raj Films release, I always love their movies with a big canvass and this one lived up to my expectations once again. Many would think that it is an Irrfan movie, but I felt that equal weight was given to all the characters. I think Uday Chopra is going to walk away with the laurels with this movie especially with the last scene where he jumps onto a vine with the stream flowing below and shoots the Afghan terrorist (brilliantly taken!), though Jimmy Shergill won’t be far behind.

4) Raju Singh has composed the music, which is hummable, though it appropriately forms the insignificant part of the movie! Lyrics are well written by Javed Akthar and Tigmanshu Dhulia, who is also the director of the movie. The dialogues carry no extra-jargon and it’s a racy and easy flowing movie!

5) Jimmy’s way of saying, “I am Dev, Dev Anand” is really funny and could be a fast catch-on! Watch out for that...lol;)

So, as I conclude this review and open the doors to your comments, dear readers, I would recommend you to watch this movie.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this review as much as I have enjoyed watching the movie and writing about it!

Have fun India, Chhail;)