Chehre - A Riveting Film which also has serious things to say

 

YOU ARE SAFE, THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS NO SPOILERS AT ALL 😊

Flamboyant advertising magnate (Emraan Hashmi) suffers a car breakdown in the middle of nowhere during a snow blizzard. He finds shelter in an imposing mansion of a retired judge (Dhritiman Chatterjee).

The unexpected guest learns that the former judge and his retired colleagues stage mock trials to relieve themselves from the daily tedium.

Participating in this game is a behemoth of a public prosecutor (Amitabh Bachchan) who possesses a Sherlock Holmes-like acumen for analysis and deduction. There is also an adroit and lively defense lawyer (Annu Kapoor) who hopes to be David against the goliath of a prosecutor.

The guest who is oozing with confidence, bordering on arrogance, agrees to play the part of the accused in their game, claiming that his life is an open book devoid of any criminal intrigue. 

The open questions remain as follows:

• Is this mock trial merely a theoretical exercise? 
• Is this a cruel practical joke?
• Could there be something more sinister afoot?

Chehre is a faithful adaptation of a 1960 play by James Yaffe, which was in turn based on the novel ‘A Dangerous Game’ by Swiss author Friedrich Dürrenmatt.

 

Most of Amitabh Bachchan's films during the 70s and 80s offered poetic justice. The audiences who suffered grave inequities in their daily lives cheered for the angry young man who single-handedly took on the system. It helped that this form of vigilante justice was delivered with an effortless swagger by the Big B. 

In Chehre too, Amitabh Bachchan’s character attempts to deliver justice working outside the legal system. But this time it is through wits and not with fists.

The first phase of the film where all the characters are introduced is done with great flair and humour, yet darkness always looms. The repartee and the war of wits among the characters are most engaging.

The second phase presents the mock trial. The film deals with themes ranging from justice to revenge. It ponders about the function of the legal system in society, is it for punitive action or deterrence?

It depicts how easily laws can be circumvented by clever lawyers which makes justice almost arbitrary. Quite often the victim is subjected to relentless cross-examination and humiliation on their path to justice via the legal system. The film asks about the value of justice if human dignity has to be sacrificed to get it?

Even after justice is delivered, civil society punishes the perpetrator rather leniently compared to the heinousness of his crime. 

 

The film asks pertinent questions about vigilante justice. How far can private citizens go to deliver justice? Can violation of civil liberties and intrusion of privacy be justified to achieve a larger cause?

As the film progresses the mansion becomes a metaphor for a totalitarian state. For the guest, this is a Kafkaesque maze and there is no way out of it.

Amitabh Bachchan’s determined public prosecutor may think he is on the right side of justice, but he does sound like the notorious Lavrentiy Beria.

Beria was the most ruthless and longest-serving secret police chief in Joseph Stalin’s reign of terror in Russia and Eastern Europe.  “Show me the man and I’ll find you the crime” was Beria’s infamous boast to Stalin.

The writers Ranjit Kapoor and Rumy Jaffrey deserve to be commended for crafting a story and screenplay that is not only engaging and entertaining but also delivers copious social commentary.

The wind chilled the snow-capped mountains of Slovakia works as an effective backdrop for Chehre; the feeling of deceit, danger, intrigue, and unexplored darkness prevalent all through. 

If there is a flaw to be pointed out, it is the flashbacks that look rather out of harmony with the rest of the film in terms of hues and tone. Also, the appearance of a song seems incongruous and dilutes the tension a bit.

Films that are based on stage plays often can appear too talky, stagey, and pedestrian. Watch August: Osage County to see how things can go bad.

But veteran cinematographer Binod Pradhan’s innovative photography, the handsome production design by Priya Suhas, and the superb art direction by Vijay Ghodke makes the film eminently cinematic.

It is a testament to Pradhan's masterful camerawork that the mansion on some occasions seems like a vast landscape while on others feels like a suffocating prison. The feeling of claustrophobia also serves as a metaphor for the accused predicament as he feels the noose of the law tightening around his neck. 

The editor Bodhaditya Banerjee maintains the pace despite the relative lack of physical action or much movement or change of locations. 

The background score by the brilliant Clinton Cerejo is eerie, mysterious, thrilling, poignant, and even romantic. It elevates every scene and adds class to the proceedings. The score is also one of the reasons that the tension is retained all through the film.

It has to be said that the talented Mr. Cerejo is perhaps the only composer in India who truly understands the function of a background score in a film. The rest, especially the ones who compose background scores for web series, usually drown everything else, even at times dialogues with loud jarring soulless hideous noise.

The sound design is very effective too. The storm and the loud thunder remind us that something ominous is lurking around.

Now for the cast. Dhritiman Chatterjee, as always, adds gravitas to the proceedings as the formidable judge. Annu Kapoor is very effective as he chews the scenery.  Siddhant Kapoor has does well too. Raghuveer Yadav is remarkable in a brief but important part.

The angelic Rhea Chakraborty is good as the mysterious Anna. The irony isn’t lost that after being a victim of a kangaroo court trial in real life, she features in a film that deals with it. Although her ordeal was infinitely more perilous than what is depicted in the film. 

Emraan Hashmi whose character has the most interesting arc in the film does splendidly at every juncture.

But it is the mighty Amitabh Bachchan that towers over everybody both literally and metaphorically. The man, simply described, is the most regal, commanding, and magnetic screen presence to ever dawn the silver screen.

His effective but understated entry as he braves his way through a snowstorm works marvelously. This is what solid screen presence is all about, the stuff that superstars are made of. 

His character is sharp, witty, exuberant, and has a dark sense of humor, all of these attributes are masterfully depicted by Bachchan.

Watch him deliver an 11-minute closing testimony in his rich baritone voice. This is a master class in film acting as the camera remains mostly on his face. Bachchan shows that how to be effective while doing so demonstratively little. This is the best sort of acting is where the effort of performance does not show. It is the subtle modulation of the voice and the slight moistness of the eyes that convey a whole gamut of emotions during this particularly powerful and poignant juncture of the film

This is a complex character with very well-written dialogues, a role that merits the talents of the Big B and as expected he delivers perfectly. 

I've stated this before, I haven’t seen Picasso paint and I haven’t heard Mozart compose but I am lucky to have witnessed high art as I saw Amitabh Bachchan on the big screen.

Director Rumi Jaffery deserves myriad plaudits for delivering on all fronts. The film is handsomely mounted but also has its heart and mind in the right place.

Jaffery had made a film that is devoid of special effects, razzle-dazzle, and physical action yet it is thoroughly riveting, exciting, suspenseful, interesting, intriguing, and commanding.

Do watch Chehre on the biggest screen possible.