Chhapaak review - Brilliantly uncomfortable - video Dailymotion

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Full Article here: https://gn24.ae/939c1b94234d000  See more at https://gulfnews.com/videos It’s a hate crime that bludgeons you with its bestial nature and eats at your body and soul and director Meghna Gulzar’s ‘Chhapaak’ — a haunting tale of an acid attack survivor Malti — operates at a visceral and an intellectual level. The movie, about how a man who flippantly uses acid as a weapon of control and subjugation, haunts you and makes you uncomfortable at the senselessness of the crime. #DeepikaPadukone #Chhapaak #MeghnaGulzar

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00:00It's a hate crime that bludgeons you with its bestial nature,

00:02but director Meghna Gulzar's new movie Chhapak,

00:05which stars Deepika Padukone,

00:07operates on both the intellectual level and the visceral level.

00:16That's one of the best parts about this film.

00:18It's a very sobering subject.

00:20It's a tale about how an acid attack survivor reclaims her life,

00:25her dignity and how her face is partially eroded

00:28and how she has to reconstruct her life from day one.

00:32It's not an easy movie to watch,

00:34but one of the best parts about Chhapak is its casting.

00:37Deepika Padukone is perfectly cast as Malti,

00:41the young woman who's attacked by a spurned lover

00:44and he decides throwing acid on her face

00:46and making her pay for rejecting his advances is a good way to get back.

00:50It's a weapon of revenge, it's very toxic

00:53and it's also very uncomfortable to watch.

00:55But what makes this movie tick is the great performance by Deepika Padukone.

01:00Now you all know Deepika Padukone,

01:01she's one of the most stunning women in Bollywood.

01:03She looks the part, she's very graceful.

01:05She looks like, you know, any day even at the airport

01:08she looks like she just stepped out of a fashion runway.

01:11But here she's stripped of all the physicality,

01:13the crutch that usually that she falls back on.

01:16Her legs are not on display, nor is her beautiful face.

01:19What we have is a heavily scarred face,

01:22there's no eyebrows, hardly a year,

01:24yet though she's deliberately disfigured,

01:26there's a part of her which just talks to you

01:29because her performance is very compelling and very sensitive.

01:33At no point do we feel sympathetic towards her,

01:35we feel empathy which is a great thing that I think an actor can do.

01:39And there's another actor who really had my heart,

01:41it was Vikrant Massey.

01:43He plays the activist, journalist turned activist in this movie

01:47and it's the dynamic between them

01:49and how she gets to meet him, join his NGO

01:52which is like a non-government organisation,

01:54they seek funds to help other acid attack victims.

01:57What is their personal dynamic like

01:59and how does her life get reconstructed?

02:02It's not just about grafting the skin from her back onto her face,

02:06her life suddenly changes, does a 90 degree turn

02:10and then what you have is a woman struggling to survive.

02:14For her, even surviving a day is a big deal,

02:16that's a cause for celebration.

02:17Director Meghna Gulzar who's known for her compelling

02:20and sensitive portrayal in movies like Raazi,

02:22it was a war drama which was not jingoistic

02:25and then there was Filal about surrogacy and it was way ahead of its time.

02:29She comes back with a great feature here,

02:31I mean this is one lady who does not give you neat endings

02:34or perfectly tied, perfectly sanitised work.

02:38She makes you uncomfortable, she makes you shift in her seat

02:41and what you see in front of you,

02:42the staggering statistics about acid attack victims,

02:45it could have easily gone down the agenda driven path

02:48or easily gone down the didactic route but it doesn't.

02:51What you have is just a story about human resilience, sisterhood

02:55and just fight for survival I suppose.

02:57Even the perpetrator of her violence, there's a humane face to him,

03:01you know he's a pervert, you know he's used acid

03:03or the easy access to acid as a tool to destroy a woman's life

03:07yet you look at him through the lens that you want to see,

03:11you don't hate on him yet you look at the senselessness of it.

03:15This movie makes you feel, makes you uncomfortable,

03:17that's one of the biggest takeaways of this film.

03:20In terms of the negatives, I would say that

03:23trying to make Deepika Padukone look like a school girl,

03:26like a high school going girl,

03:27that's when the crime occurs in her life is a bit of a stretch.

03:31They should not have tried that because she looks way older,

03:34it looks age inappropriate

03:36but that's a very tiny blip on an otherwise very smooth film.

03:39It's got great cast, it's got great acting

03:42and a storyline that is compelling.

03:44At no point does it become boring,

03:46you have to remember this is a very grim sobering subject.

03:49How much can you talk about acid attack survivors,

03:52you know that it's the most gravest crime that you can do to perhaps a woman,

03:56it's very violent, it's very disturbing

03:58but there's a good chance that it becomes boring as well

04:01but director Meghna Gulzar does this impeccable job

04:04of making it a compelling story as well.

04:07We get a peek into Malti's life, her fight for survival.

04:10With Chhapaak, 2020 has officially begun with a bang.

04:14What you have is a good movie,

04:15I think every woman and man out there must watch this movie

04:19just to understand the physical and the psychological trauma

04:21that an acid attack survivor goes through.

04:24It's not an easy watch but it's a great disservice

04:26if you don't give this movie a shot.

04:28I've gone with 3.5 out of 5.

04:31For my full review, go to gulfnews.com slash tabloid.

Chhapaak review - Brilliantly uncomfortable

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