Vivek Agnihotri couldn’t have asked more for his first directorial venture. He had almost everything in his favour. An ensemble star cast, hefty budget, excellent music and in addition to this the buzz created by the stylish promos was more than enough what he could have demanded. Then also he failed to satisfy the expectations of cine goers. Though the movie is radically different from usual who-dun-it drama but can’t be considered as an edge-on-the-seat flick. In contrast with the reactions of MSians on this movie, it isn’t that bad too. Here is a summary of what I concluded after watching the movie.
The film’s posters were carrying a tag line. “sometimes it’s best not to ask to many questions”. This was the problem with our main protagonist Krishna Pandit (Anil Kapoor) a successful lawyer in London who is asked to take the cause of two Indians embroiled in a controversy, by his friend Monsoon (Sushma Reddy), a journalist.
The two Indians are P.P.(Irfan Khan) and Sim(Tanushree Dutta) who are suspect in a bank robbery and a bomb blast. Krish starts his case by interrogating them. In fact the whole film lies on his interesting questions and their not-so-interesting answers.
They start narrating their tale as how 5 friends who wanted to be musicians become victims to the mafias and corrupt police officers and what sins they had been forced to commit. A professional hacker Chip(Arshad Warsi), a hardcore flirt Deva(Emraan Hashmi), a sensitive painter P. P., a bar dancer Sim and a hot headed thief Rocker(Suniel Shetty). Each of them was so different from each other yet they were the best of friends. So when Rocker fall a victim of drug mafia, to pull him out they commit their first crime which was actually a setup of a much bigger game, the bank robbery. They however fell for the money and decide to double-cross their employer. But somewhere, someone was watching them so after the robbery three of them were killed mercilessly while the life of rest of two was now in Krish’s hands.
After discarding many theories of them finally Krish arrives at a point where he concluded to get the truth.
But every thing is not as simple as it appears. The line between truth and real truth is very thin but has its existence. Actually the story of film is like a complex web which is quite difficult to describe in simple worlds. The first half hour keeps u staring straight into the screen but gradually film looses its grip and post interval portions appear to be exaggerated (barring the interesting hi-tech robbery)
I have list various positive and negative aspects of this movie which is
basically inspired by the hollywood flick’’The Usual Suspects’’. U can judge by them whether it is your cup of tea or not.
‘+’ one’s
Anil Kapoor: He once again delivers a sincere performance in the role of an over the top lawyer who is more smart than necessary. It was only due to him this character was likeable otherwise any other actor when repeating the same lines again and again and a monotonous expression throughout the film would have fallen flat. It’s not so often u see Anil doing three films in a year and shining in all of them.
Irfan Khan: The man is a revelation to watch. Be it a author backed ‘Haasil’, author lacked ‘7.5 Phere’ or the shear crap ‘Rog’. He makes his presence felt every time.
Here also whatever time his character is on screen u can’t think anything else. He has also got some fine witting lines and any admirer of this great artist won’t be disappointed after watching the flick.
Sushma Reddy: This gorgeous lissome girl has an amazing screen presence. Though she nothing exceptional when it came to acting. But even in fully clad clothes the leggy siren was more attractive than Tanushree who was ran out of her wardrobe in the entire movie. She is a promising newcomer both on fronts of acting as well as sizzling.
Pritam Chakravarthy: Music was one of the prominent factor why ‘chocolate’ had an edge over the other releases of the week. While ‘halka halka’ and ‘jhuki jhuki’ were fine ‘Mummy ko nahi hai pata’ was just irresistible. Generally ‘music’ is not considered to be an integral part of the movie when it comes to suspense thrillers. But chocolate is one exception(though pleasant one) here.
‘-’ one’s
Vivek Agnihotri: It’s nice to see a first timer choosing a curved script like this. But then his job doesn’t end right there. Instead the job starts from there actually. First of all the very idea of making a suspense flick of 16 reels is quite awful. In a time where barring Chopras and Johars all the producers and directors are making films of 12-14 reels, director is dreaming of people gluing to their seats with popcorn in their hands wondering what is going to happen the next moment. In fact after 1st hour itself the curiosity drops down hills. Also the repetitive amendment in the flashback events and the constant shifting of flashback and current situation is a dragging factor. Having taken some precautions and corrections, Vivek could fit into the shoes of ‘Abbas Mustan’ but as for now, DELHI seems to be a distant destination for him.
Tanushree Dutta: I m not sure whether I put her in this column or not. She showed promises in her debut ‘ABA’. Even though her character was actually meant for other things rather than acting, yet she managed to catch attention. But here it appears that she was strictly instructed not to act, but concentrate on those ‘other things’ more specifically. So we saw her in smallest possible costumes in most of the scenes. If she continues to accept these types of roles, very soon she will be in the same league as Payal Rohtagi.
Suniel Shetty: I don’t think a single person will argue why? I can’t remember a single film in last 2-3 years about which people have felt that this role was specifically meant for him. In fact he has become a forced character in every film. The first body builder of Indian cinema who was once considered as desi ‘stallone’ has surely deteriorated a long way to reach here.
If u are wondering about Emraan Hashmi and Arshad Warshi , I will put them at ground (zero) level. Neither their characters were developed wisely nor were they given substantial screen time. Even Raj Zutshi’s character was almost equal as these two.
Also some important questions remained unanswered even after the end.
I won’t recommend general public to watch ‘chocolate’ in a theatre but those who particularly are obsessed with films of this genre as me can no doubt have a look.