Review: 'Chaurahen'

Film: Chaurahen
Director: Rajshree Ojha
Cast: Ankur Khanna, Soha Ali Khan, Victor Banerjee, Roopa Ganguly, Kiera Chaplin, Karthik Kumar, Shayan Munshi, Zeenat Aman
Rating: **

Chaurahen means crossroads in Hindi. This 2007 film (as listed on IMDB), mostly in English, is seeing the light of the day after making rounds of film festivals across the world for almost five years. It’s being released via PVR’s Director’s Rare initiative and in director Rajshree Ojha’s words is a “truly independent film”.

Ojha weaves four stories by Hindi novelist Nirmal Verma, into one 90-minute film with ample layers, long silences and stunning performances.

Mumbai: Farooq (Ankur Khanna) and Ira (Soha Ali Khan) are a young couple in love. A writer, Farooq holds on to eerie memories (including a pair of used dentures) of his dead parents. This feeling of not letting go will cost him dearly; his relationship with Ira.

Kolkata: Middle-aged Mr Bose (Victor Banerjee) is drawn to a young foreigner, Lea (Kiera Chaplin), leaving his wife (Roopa Ganguly) to suffer alone and mourn the death of their daughter Sujata (nothing is explained, we only know she’s dead).

Kochi: Budding writer Nandu (Karthik Kumar) is home from Vienna to attend his younger brother Keshy’s last rites. Standing up for himself, constantly wanting to be accepted without living in the shadow of his soldier brother, Nandu is always at uncomfortable distance from his army man father.

The fourth story is that of Keshy (Shayan Munshi) and his very brief meeting with an elderly woman (Zeenat Aman) in a bar.

The stories are not related by subtly tied by a common thread: death. Ojha explores human emotions of grief, longing and finally redemption. Understated, yet touching performances take Chaurahen to another level, one where death connects. Ojha takes liberties of using very minimal dialogue, allowing her actors to use body language amply to express varied emotions. One scene that remains with you is when Nandu, in a candid, almost tearful conversation with sister Neeta (Suchitra Pillai) tells her how badly he needs to return to Vienna. He says someone’s waiting for him and it’s a ‘he’.

For a 90-minute feature, the pace of Chaurahen is slow enough to induce sleep. Too many unexplained angles and cheesy lines easily throws it into the one-time watch basket. It does not entertain even by a long shot, but sure does depress because of its intense portrayal of death and grief. Ojha handles her subject well, never resorting to melodrama or extreme reactions. The audience for such kind of cinema is so niche, it won’t be surprising if Chaurahen sinks without a trace.

Indie cinema junkies will devour Chaurahen but those who enjoy a good Bollywood entertainer will be left high and dry.