Media Magick

What happens when you announce a film with the leading lady of Pakistani film industry who is recently honored with Tamgha-e-Imtiaz (Award of Excellence)? Expectations are bound to be sky-high. With comparatively newer cast associated with box-office superstar Mehwish Hayat, Wajahat Rauf’s latest film Chhalawa is recently released. Azfar Rehman plays lead for the first time in Chhalawa, earlier he was seen on silver screen with Mehwish Hayat in Punjab Nahi Jaungi where he played an extended cameo. Will Azfar Rehman be able to make it big with Chhalawa? Will Mehwish Hayat be able to save the entire movie on her shoulders? Let’s find out what Chhalawa has in store for its viewers.

Trailer: Chhalawa

Chhalawa’s story revolves around some basic half-cooked and rushed elements added in the film with prominent 4 categories i.e. hurried romance, forced puns, yawn-some emotional drama unnecessarily  stuffed and unrealistic treatment in the name of producing “brainless entertainer”. Chhalawa unfortunately tells a story which is formed around the dialogues (if that makes any sense). With zero character development and forced humor Chhalawa tells the story of a girl Zara (Mehwish Hayat) who is in love with Sameer (Azfar Rehman) but is locked-up by her father (Mehmood Aslam) in her house as he wants her to get married with his brother’s son Jalal (Mohsin Ejaz). How a Choudhary is befooled by a fake ‘Peer’ (Asad Siddiqui) and how this Peer and his friend enter in Chaudhary’s house is what Chhalawa is about.

With a boring script which only stretches the scenes terribly failing all the 9 Cs of communication, Chhalawa has weak dialogues which try too hard to make audience laugh and as a result drastically fail in achieving the objective. The film is written by Yasir Hussain and this is by far one of the weakest attempts by him. The music is good but then again forced and adds no value to the film. Songs just appear, why? Keep guessing!

Performance wise, Chhalawa offers nothing that stays with the audience once they leave the cinema. Mehwish Hayat is wasted in a character which could’ve been developed a little better and could have elements of reality. Watching an actress with Tamgha-e-Imtiaz and who performed impeccably brilliant in Punjab Nahi Jaungi and Load Wedding striving too hard to bring smiles and laughter with fake accent and zero meaningful dialogues is a sheer disappointment. Azfar Rehman is easily forgettable and tries too hard to ‘act’ leaving zero-impact on viewers. Asad Siddiqui excels in a few scenes. Zara Noor Abbas is good but gets too loud for no good reason.

The problem with the performances in Chhalawa is that the entire cast goes overboard (read: loud). Every character seems to overact in this so called family entertainer which misses the shot big-time.  It is quite a task to remember the plus-points of the film. In the name of rom-com and family entertainer Wajahat Rauf delivers a film which is neither exciting nor creative or thoughtful; and offers clichéd story. Direction of Chhalawa is ineffective. There are scenes which might have had a little impact on the audience but they are amateurishly directed. It won’t be wrong to say that Chhalawa is a film made around a few scenes where the makers thought adding lengthy dialogues, unnecessary puns and stereotypical performances will save the project.

There’s a scene in the film where the couple escapes and ends up attending a wedding, where the girl (who’s shown a reputed Choudhary’s daughter) starts to dance like “Billi and Tutti Fruity-crazed being” in the herd of not so decent men. Her moves and expressions are in no sync with the character she plays. Similarly, the climax is anything but entertaining or well-thought of. It plays games with sensible audience’s mind a gunshot oldie running and cracking jokes, an unneeded moulvi and the irrelevant speech make audience wonder “Why” is this happening and “How” can someone come up with such script?

Chhalawa offers below average script, mediocre writing and loud performances which bore you throughout. Kids might like it because of their intellect. Sensible and mature audience can easily save their Eidi by not watching Chhalawa.

By the way, no one knows why Mehwish Hayat wrote those letters to her deceased mother, and what was the logic behind adding that element?