Movie Review: Chhichhore

Annirudh (Sushant Singh Rajput) called Anni by his friends and Maya (Shraddha Kapoor) are a divorced couple. Their lives turn topsy turvy when they learn that their young son Raghav has tried to commit suicide. Annirudh feels that narrating stories from his own college days might help his son recover mentally. It was during college that he fell in love with Maya, and formed life-long friendships with the likes of Sexa (Varun Sharma), Derek (Tahir Raj Bhasin), Acid (Naveen Polishetty), Mummy (Tushar Pandey), Bevda (Saharsh Kumar Shukla), and others. As the friends regroup in order to be with Anni and Maya in their time of need, distance and time fades away to reveal a treasure trove of memories...

It's a campus comedy/ romance at one level but tackles the serious problem of student suicide on the other. Hundreds of students every year put themselves in the way of harm because of pressure brought in by studies. It's a problem that needs redressal. Communication is one of the key factors here. Despite all the latest means of communication, parents have sort of lost touch with their children. Then, while we do motivate our children towards success, we need to tell them that failure is okay as well. That it's not failure but the fear of failure that one should be vary of. That's the message the film tries to impart and that's the message we need to take to our homes and plant in the fertile hearts and minds of our children.

The film is a mixture of Student Of The Year, 3 Idiots and most campus films you've seen in your life. The hostels are pitted off each other in a set of sporting achievements and Sushant Singh Rajput and friends belong to a hostel which has never won the championship ever. They square off against a hostel whose leader is Raggie (Prateik Babbar), and who have always won it. So they use a mixture of cunning and team building to shorten the odds. The various sport activities are written to bring in the laughs and do their job. One can feel the college spirit seeping through. The various antics of the students inside the hostel also bring in the laughs. Our only complaint is that the students in a premier engineering college are shown to do everything except studying. While the nostalgia portions are nice, the parts where Sushant and Shraddha meet the doctor appear repetitive and hence lose their impact after a while. One realises that the director has been using them as fillers to merge the past with the present. Another minor glitch, if it could be called that, is that there is no conversation about what Sushant and Shraddha's friends are doing currently. We don't get to know how they fared in life. Let alone that, one isn't told why the couple, who were college sweethearts, couldn't sustain their marriage. These gaps could easily have been filled and one wonders why it wasn't the case

Sushant Singh Rajput channels his inner Steve Jobs in his senior avatar. He has a way of underplaying his characters and has co-stars like Tahir Raj Bhasin, Varun Sharma and Prateik Babbar feed off him, thereby adding to the film. He's flawless playing the ambitious student and looks convincing as a dad as well. 

It was nice to see Prateik playing a cocky house captain with a swagger in his walk. He has added to his repertoire with this film.

In fact, the entire ensemble cast  have batted well for the film and have been true to their characters. They do give off a feeling of being die-hard friends. Shraddha Kapoor and Sushant Singh's romance needed to be explored more. They make for a convincing couple for sure. Shraddha has acted well in both avatars but we wish we saw more of her angst and her anger. 

All-in-all, Chhichhore is a well-acted comedy providing plenty of laughs with its one-liners and talks about an important issue as well. What more can one ask for, really?