Chhorii Movie Review ‘Chhori’ giving a social message in the screen of horror, Nursat Bharucha and Mita Vashisht’s strong performances

Chhorii Movie Review The Marathi film Lapachhapi has been remade in Hindi by its director Vishal Furia with the title Chhori. Lapachhapi was released in theaters in 2017 and Chhori has come on OTT platform Amazon Prime Video in 2021. With a long gap of four years between the two films and the promotion of OTT platforms, there is a seemingly endless series of streaming of interesting stories from across the country and the world.

Through this streaming, so much content is reaching the mobile kept in the pocket of the viewer that it does not take long for the new to become old. Same problem with the girl. Had this film been released three-four years ago, its impact might have been tremendous, but OTT’s Balihari, Shabana Azmi’s Kaali Khuhi, which came on Netflix last year, seems old.

The spectator who has watched Kaali, proceeds by measuring the parallels in the spread of Chhori’s story, which continues in the climax of the film till the social message is given against Chhoris i.e. killing of girls and feticide in the name of malpractices. But this girl has her own importance.

The theme of the story of Chhori certainly seems old, but the film has some stages of its own, which make it worth watching. However, by the time the climax approaches, the grip of the film loosens. However, Nushrat Bharucha and Meeta Vashisht do not let the film slip with their performances.

For the Hindi audience, the story of Vishal Furia Chhori has been taken to a village in North India. Due to the tone and dress of the characters, it seems to be a village in Haryana or western Uttar Pradesh. Sakshi (Nushrat Bharucha), about eight months pregnant, runs an NGO in the town. Sakshi’s husband Hemant was assaulted by his men after he could not repay the loan taken from the local Dabang Chandel for business. In order to protect the pregnant wife, Hemant, on the advice of his driver Kajla, agrees to hide in her village, 300 km away, where Chandel’s goons cannot reach.

In the village where Kajla lives, there are only 5 houses, of which two belong to her. On reaching home, Kajla’s wife Bhanno Devi assures Hemant of Sakshi’s care. Sabhi feels satisfied and safe with Bhanno Devi’s hospitality, but after some time she starts seeing three children, who play far and wide in the fields surrounded by reed houses and suddenly disappear. Sakshi wants to play with them, but Bhanno Devi instructs them to stay away from the children.

Sakshi finds Bhano Devi’s words strange and asks Hemant to go back when he returns from the city. Both are about to leave in the night when Kajla knocks Hemant unconscious by beating him with a stick and Bhanno Devi imprisons Sakshi by tying her hands and feet. Bhanno reveals to Sakshi a secret of this family, which has very creepy and nefarious traditions.

Bhano Devi tells him that their house is under the curse of Sunayani, the dead wife of Kajla’s younger brother, whom she calls a witch. Kajla and Bhanno Devi had four sons. The eldest was Rajbir. After Sunayni enters the house, she subdues the three younger sons. Bhanno Devi complains about this to Sunayani’s husband. There is a fight between the two. Sunyani kills her husband and commits suicide by jumping into a well along with Bhanno Devi’s three sons. Sunayni is eight months pregnant at the time of her death.

Kajla’s son Rajbir has three marriages. Sunayni kills two wives in the eighth month of pregnancy. The child of the third wife Rani is also killed, but her life is saved. However, due to the shock, he loses his voice. Bhanno tells that the curse of this house will be removed only when a pregnant girl stays there for three days and remains safe. After this Sakshi starts seeing some scenes from the past here and there, in which information about Sunayni and the events related to her comes to the fore. Now whether Sakshi is able to escape from the clutches of these people or not? What happens to Hemant? Why does Sakshi see children and Sunayini? What is Rajbir’s secret? The following story answers these questions, which is better to see for yourself.

The story of Chhori is of Vishal Furia, while the screenplay and dialogues have been written by Vishal Kapoor. Chhori’s takeoff is fine and more than half the film is tied, but after Sakshi’s delusional scene, the film starts to falter. This part feels stretched and the duration of 2 hours 9 minutes starts feeling a bit long. Barring one or two twists in the climax, there is nothing that remains in the mind even after the film is over.

If we talk about horror, then the house built in the middle of the cane in the village and the maze-like paths increase the curiosity towards the scenes and this sense of unpredictability adds a temper of horror to it. These seemingly simple scenes also help in creating suspense. Sunayini roaming in the house and more horror than the soul of the children is created through the location and Anshul Dubey’s cinematography in this is praiseworthy. The way he has shown the sunken house amidst the sugarcane fields through the eyes of the camera, he has made even the ordinary scene exciting.

In Chhori, the characters of Nusrat and Mita Vashisht mainly take the film forward and both these actresses have done a great job in their respective characters. After the strange story, Nusrat has once again left the mark of her serious performance. At the same time, Mita Vashisht’s performance makes a special contribution in raising the mysterious image of the girl. Rajesh Jais in the character of Kajla and Saurabh Goyal in the character of Hemant has supported him well. The figures of female feticide and female infanticide at the end of the film give a serious look to the film. Vishal Furia Ki Chhori may be weak on the horror front, but the film does not bore.

Artist Nusrat Bharucha, Mita Vashisht, Saurabh Goyal, Rajesh Jais etc.

Director – Vishal Furia

Story – Vishal Furia

Screenplay & Dialogues – Vishal Kapoor

Duration- 2 hours 9 minutes.

Rating- ***(Three Star)