There are brilliant films, and there are terrible ones. But more often than not, you come across films that lie somewhere inbetween. They are neither masterpieces, nor trash, but cover the middle ground with a combination of good and bad elements. These films can fall primarily in two categories. In the first type, the film is weaker with detailing, but there is a significant overall impact, while in the other type, the film works as far as the detailing is concerned, but the total effect is less than impressive. Paresh Mokashi’s Chi Va Chi Sau Ka, falls in the latter category.
The film is a romcom with unusual characters and takes the standard formula of ‘boy-meets-girl, boyloses- girl, boy-gets-girl’ as the basic structure. Satyaprakash and Savitree ( a take on the mythological pair Satyavan-Savitri) or Satya ( Lalit) and Savi ( Mrinmayee) for short, meet at the marriage registrar’s office as their respective friends Raj ( Ruturaj) and Neha ( Arti) prepare to tie the knot. Satya has a business manufacturing Solar panels. He is an eco-fanatic and a devout non-vegetarian. Savi is a veterinary doctor who works for an animal welfare organisation. She is a vegan and has a strong dislike for non-vegetarians.
Soon, Savi’s family extends a marriage proposal to Satya, but Savi puts forth an unusual precondition. She wants to stay with Satya under one roof for a few days in a nonphysical relationship, to test their compatibility before taking the final step of marriage. Satya readily agrees and the experiment begins.
The idea of a couple staying together to decide the compatibility in an arranged marriage situation is an unusual one, but mostly in theory. Live in relationships are fairly common these days, and it makes no difference whatsoever as far as the social implications are concerned. If the test was comprehensive with the physical component in play, it would have made more sense as that’s one of the trickier areas in relationships, and is a known cause for failed marriages. Compatibility test excluding the physical intimacy makes little sense, if at all. The watered down version in the film is too simplistic for the possibility of any real conflict.
The characters of Satya and Savi are interesting enough and the audience can readily identify with them, although they are not without contradictions. For example, how can a person concentrating on saving energy have only air conditioners in his house instead of fans? Still, the characters are amusing, and we don’t need a realistic explanation for everything. Still, one feels the script should have concentrated more on exploring the actual relationship graph instead of being happy with quirky character traits like it does. The payoff could have been much higher in that case.
For the first half an hour or so, Chi Va Chi Sau Ka had me worried. The film was too loud, literally and figuratively. Characters were screaming, humour was obvious and clichéd, situations were predictable. However, once Savi shifted with Satya, things settled down a bit and the film improved.
One thing is certain; this is not Paresh Mokashi’s best work till date. Both his earlier films, Harischandrachi Factory about the birth of Indian cinema, and Elizabeth Ekadashi, a contemporary take on neorealist themes were superior in comparison. And yet, the film is not without it’s moments. It is reasonably amusing for most part, and there are some LOL moments as well. The last decent Marathi film we saw in theaters this year was Ti Sadhya Kay Karte in January. After such a long dry spell, Chi Va Chi Sau Ka should have a good chance at the box office.
