Kalpana Lajmee. The name is synonymous with meaningful cinema. Cinema that enlightens.Her latest offering Chingari bares open the story that’s prevalent at some places of India .
A critically acclaimed director whose hard-hitting middle- sensibilities in Darmiyan won rave reviews. Needless to say, her latest endeavour is surrounded with expectations.Expectations may generate curiosity, but they can also prove to be the downfall. That’s the case with Chingari!
The film is about a prostitute, Basanti (Sushmita Sen), who lives in Laalbatti in a village called Rangpur. The whole village is dominated by a godman, Bhuvan Panda (Mithun Chakraborty) — during the day, he plays with the emotions of hapless illiterate villagers and in the night, preys on prostitutes.
Enter a new postman Chandan (Anuj Sawhney) into the village who falls in love with Basanti and wants to marry her and adopt her daughter Titli. But Bhuvan takes this up as a personal challenge to stop this marriage.
Films of this genre have been attempted, recycled and repackaged in various avtaars on Hindi screen before, thereby giving the viewer a been-there-done-that kind of a feel.
The film starts off pretty well, but runs out of steam in the second half. That’s mainly because too many songs have been incorporated in this half, which also come in very quick succession and seem forced in the goings-on. Director Lajmee has handled a few sequences with flourish. But she is letdown by a script that looks implausible and far-fetched at most times. Moreover, due to the sluggish pace the film moves at, boredom sets in after a point of time..
From the script point of view, Sush’s role is under-developed. The presence of Ila Arun in her life and even the relationship she shares with the postman, does not come across effectively.The biggest drawback of the film, besides an oft-repeated plot, is that it’s too grim, too dark and too depressing. In the current scenario, when feel-good entertainers are calling the shots, Chingari is too dry a subject that relies heavily on realism to the point that everything else takes a backseat.
It’s the performances that are the saving grace.Anuj is natural. Mithun is competent.But it is the ever-reliable Sushmita who comes up with a powerful performance. Her emotional outbursts, as a helpless mother , engage the viewer to a major extent.Disappointing fare indeed!