REVIEW: CHEHRE

Producer-Anand Pandit

Director- Rumi Jaffrey

Star Cast-Amitabh Bachchan, Emran Hashmi, Annu Kapoor, Ragubir Yadav, Dhritimaan Chtterji, Rhea Charaborty, Krystle DSouza, Siddhant Kapoor and Sameer Soni

Genre- Thriller

Rating- ***

Platform- Theatres

Watchable!

Jyothi Venkatesh

Four thick drinking friends cum erstwhile court officials comprising a public prosecutor, defense lawyer, judge and an executioner, get together at a heritage mansion in an isolated hill station.

Reenacting mock trials on stranded strangers who seek refuge in their spooky house happens to be their favorite eerie pastime. The game’s fun until things gets too serious for comfort.

Smart and suave corporate ad agency guy Sameer Mehra (Emraan Hashmi) runs into the four gentlemen when he is compelled to spend the night at the house owing to extreme weather.

He gets acquainted with the law veterans who are only too happy to host him. While Sameer is initially reluctant to participate, he later gives in and decides to play the game.

Amitabh Bachchan is the public prosecutor, Annu Kapoor’s the defence lawyer, Dhritiman Chatterjee plays the judge and Raghubir Yadav the executioner.

An unblinking Rhea Chakraborty who breaks into creepy bouts of laughter is Anna, the mansion’s mysterious housekeeper, who is also an expert painter though this aspect of hers has not been dealt with in detail

All is well till small talk and a brief drinking session later eases into the senior citizen’s club and he also agrees to indulge in the courtroom game coined by the four veterans.

He finds it amusing until they accuse him of killing his own boss Oswal (Sameer) and taking his position in the agency.

The trial begins and the unraveling of Sameer’s case forms the story. You are eager to know whether he is convicted or acquitted.

As far as performances go, I’d say that Amitabh Bachchan tops the list with his first rate performance as the uptight prosecutor who cross questions the ad man Sameer Mehra adequately while Annu Kapoor also does not lag behind with his smart repartees as the friendly defense lawyer.

As the weird looking hangman, Raghubir Yadav has little to do but nevertheless he impresses you with his small role.

Emran Hashmi laves an impact with his role as the adman while Krystle DSouza seduces you wither curves and also impresses you with her performance in a negative role.

Rhea Chakraborty though she appears too puffed up as far as her face is concerned, scores with her small role as the maid servant cum caretaker Aana in the eerie house.

Siddhanth Kapoor scores as Man servant Joe without even a single dialogue merely with his expressions

Rumi Jaffery succeeds in coming up with a film which has been deftly directed but reminds you of the genre of Badla though the film sadly remains an artistic product which will be lapped up by only cineastes and not many common men may end up patronizing the film as it does not cater to the common man at all in any way and also lacks logic.

To sum up, I’d say that Chehre is a film which though it lacks logic and has loopholes stands out as a special attempt because it does not pack the typical commercial ingredients and quite vrvose especially in the beginning but yet is watchable for Amitabh Bachchan’s gripping performance.

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