Starring : Saiyami Kher, Roshan Mathew, Amruta Subhash, Rajshri Deshpande

Directed by : Anurag Kashyap

Production Company : Good Bad Films

Cinematography : Sylvester Fonseca

Music by : Karsh Kale

So, continuing the series of reviewing movies and shows during the lockdown period, our today’s pick is the new Hindi Netflix original film Choked directed by Anurag Kashyap. Let’s now see how it is.

What’s it about?

The film is set in 2016. Sarita(Sayami Kher) is a bank employee who is the sole breadwinner of the house. She is doing all this so that her struggling husband(Roshan Mathew) can fulfill his dream of becoming a musician. Sarita and her house have so many typical middle-class issues and one of them is their sink that always gives them trouble. One fine day, when taking care of it, Sarita finds money in the form of small packets and gets the shock of her life. Things take a new turn from there as she keeps discovering money in the same place in the night time. Sarita’s life changes upside down and when things start becoming super happy for her, the note ban is announced by the Government of India. What does Sarita do with the rest of the money is the whole story of the film.

What’s good?

The set up created by Anurag Kashyap is solid and dwells into the lives of middle-class people as to how money is everything for them and how they faced issues post note ban. Sayami Kher takes a U-turn from her regular glamor roles and is superb as the struggling and money-hungry Sarita. The film completely runs on her and the way she showcases varied emotions throughout the film is just superb.

Roshan Mathews, who plays Sayami’s husband is also cool. The art direction should be given full marks for showing the crazy middle-class life of the Mumbaikars in a special manner. After a long time, Anurag makes a film that the entire family can watch as it has suspense, twists, and emotions. The camera work is also solid but the BGM takes the cake here and keeps the audience hooked until the end.

The film also showcases how the political system does things for their own interest. The way the film is ended with a funny satirical song is also good. Production values of the film are top-notch and the best part is how each and every character is nicely related to the story making things interesting.

What’s bad?

The narrative takes a beating here and there. Anurag’s satirical dig at the whole demonetization effect can get diverse responses from the public. Once the story is established, things get a bit slow in the middle part of the film and the pace drops. The climax could have been explained in a better manner to make things easy for the audience.

Final Word

Overall, Choked is surely not Anurag Kashyap’s best work to date but the story, premise, and amazing performances draw your attention most of the time. Though the logic and narration take a beating in the mid part, this film has decent drama and twists for you to give it a shot during this lockdown period. You may watch it.

Rating: 3/5