Chi Va Chi Sau Ka

Movie Review : Chi Va Chi Sau Ka

Language : Marathi

Director : Paresh Mokashi

Genre : Romantic Comedy

Starring : Lalit Prabhakar, Mrinmayee Godbole, Bharat Ganeshpure, Sharmishtha Raut, Supriya Pathare, Pradeep Joshi, Sunil Abhyankar, Purnima Talwalkar

Released : May 2017

My Rating : 8 out of 10

Marathi movies have a long relationship with successful comedy. From Raja Gosavi, to Dada Kondake, to Laxmikant Berde to movies produced by Sachin. It’s a long list. I am sure there are more number of utter failures than the successful ones. But the point is, there are comedy movies that will be remembered, recommended, discussed and watched more than once. To that list, add the latest movie by the very capable director Paresh Mokashi.

It’s near impossible to give you a synopsis of the movie without revealing a major plot element, which occurs very early in the movie. I watched the movie without knowing much about it. That’s how I prefer to watch. In that same spirit, I will reveal as little as possible in this review. This is not a suspense movie, but still it matters. You will understand why I am saying this, when you watch it.

The two main characters are Satya (Lalit Prabhakar) and Savitri (Mrinmayee Godbole). Satya is an engineer, and is passionate about saving water and energy. Savitri is a veterinarian doctor, and her passion is animals. Their passions are of course most of us would agree with, although in the movie these are deliberately portrayed to extremes for the comedic effects. I must stress it here, these passions are absolutely not the real subject of the movie. In fact, Paresh Mokashi steers clear of propaganda or any dogma.

The real focus of the movie is somewhere else. It is on how human relationships are evolving with changing times. It’s tackled in a masterful way - with high class comedy, that makes social commentary while generating chuckles and laughs. 

So comedy is the vehicle here by which a message is delivered. I will admit, I was a bit worried about the quality of the comedy when the movie began, with the introduction of the characters and the loudness that accompanied it. Fortunately, that mellowed down fairly quickly. Nevertheless, the movie remains over the top for most of the time. Subtlety makes only rare appearances. That’s a perfectly fine approach for a comedy, as long as it’s not overdone. There were a few places where I felt it was overdone, but in the grand scheme of things, it didn’t matter much.

The other minor quibble I have is about recycled jokes. It’s done only a couple of times, but I felt it was unnecessary when everything else is so much original content. Again, didn’t matter much.

The strength of the comedy resides in the dialogues, and the timing and delivery by actors. The movie is extremely strong in those aspects. The dialogues are funny, and the actors give you countless moments for laughing out loud. Another big strength of the movie is the crisp screenplay. Scenes generally don’t linger around, and multiple characters participate in most scenes to keep it moving briskly. Works very effectively. There are also a few unusual and superb camera angles along the way that are worth admiring.

This is a very enjoyable movie which I highly recommend. There are some scenes and dialogues that I will remember for a very long time. Just like other Marathi comedy movies that are now considered classics. It’s quite safe for kids. The current generation of teens and twenty somethings will perhaps like it more.