Bellamkonda Sreenivas’ Hindi debut, Chatrapathi is a film stuck in a time warp.
Cast: Bellamkonda Sreenivas, Nushrratt Bharuccha, Sharad Kelkar, Bhagyashree, Karan Singh Chhabra, Freddy Daruwala, Sahil Vaid
Director: VV Vinayak
Writers: V Vijayendra Prasad, Mayur Puri (dialogues)
“In VV Vinayak’s Chatrapathi, Shiva (Bellamkonda Sreenivas) tries to comfort his grievously injured friend and says, “Main toh aa gaya hoon.” Hearing this, the latter in his final dying moments, feebly quips, “Lekin main toh jaa rahoon hain.”
This is supposed to be a tragic scene where the hero has received a ‘severe’ blow. However, you end up giggling at the amusing dialogues instead.
What’s Yay: Bellamkonda Sreenivas shows some spark when it’s all about brawn.
What’s Nay: The entire film is a forgettable fare.
Story
As a young boy, Shiva (Bellamkonda Sreenivas) gets separated from his beloved step-mother Savitri (Bhagyashree) and his step-brother Alok (Karan Singh Chhabra) when communal violence raises its ugly head in their homeland, Mubarak (a part of Pakistan).
Alok, envious of his mother’s love for his step sibling, lies to her that Shiva has perished in the fire incited by the violence. Meanwhile, Shiva and the rest of the survivors migrate to a small sea-side town called Alang in Gujarat where they are forced to work as bonded labourers for the local gangster Bhairu Solanki (Freddy Daruwala) so that their lives are spared.
After futile attempts over the years, Shiva finally gets a clue about his missing family, courtesy his girlfriend Sapna (Nushrratt Bharuccha) who we are told, works as a PA to the Collector. However, what’s a film without any hurdles in the hero’s path? So, you have the evil step-brother Alok back in the picture with another vicious force by his side. Will Shiva ever reunite with his mother?
Direction
A reboot of SS Rajamouli’s 2005 film, Chatrapathi headlined by Prabhas, Bellamkonda Sreenivas’ Hindi debut is anything but an entertaining mass film. Replete with a formulaic template which has an ‘abla’ maa who wants her sons to be like ‘Ram and Lakshman’ while one of them despises the other, a blind woman, a loyal friend who has to die somewhere in the plot and villains who sprout dialogues like ‘Aaj se hi basti aur tere hasti dono khatam’, director VV Vinayak serves you a platter that has gone stale long back.
The filmmaker doesn’t bother to fill up any of the loopholes from the Prabhas starrer. Instead, his sole focus throughout the movie remains on Shiva flexing his muscles. You never know why the heroine falls in love with him or how he makes it to the villain’s den in the climax. The laughable dialogues make you empathize with none of the characters.
Chatrapathi is also a film where VV Vinayak’s definition of bad is restricted to someone wearing blue-grey contact lenses. And last but not the least, the dialogue writer makes sure that you remember that the backdrop of his film is Gujarat by throwing in random Gujarati words in the lines.
Performances
Bellamkonda Sreenivas, who has delivered some decent entertainers in the Telugu film industry, gets his calculations wrong with his Hindi launch pad. The poor story-telling add more to his troubles. With his towering bod, Sreenivas holds your attention in the action sequences and also has a good screen presence. But that’s it! The man falters when his muscles are put to rest. Nushrrat Bharuccha’s retro-themed outfits in Chatrapathi look more enticing than her performance.
Even a talented actor like Sharad Kelkar finds himself struggling to stay afloat in this chaos. Karan Singh Chhabra’s depiction of a bad guy could make for a perfect meme material. The rest of cast which includes Bhagyashree, Sahil Vaid and Freddy Daruwala are passable.
ALSO READ: Bellamkonda Sreenivas Calls His Hindi Debut Chatrapathi ‘A Tribute To SS Rajamouli’
Technical Aspects
Nizar Shafi’s cinematography just crosses the passing marks. The production design is tacky. In fact, the backdrop of ‘Shukriya’ song resembles a computer wallpaper. Niranjan Devaramane’s shoddy editing is marked with continuity errors.
Music
There are four songs in Chatrapathi which are randomly inserted in the narrative and none of them leave an impact. ‘Bareilly Ki Bazaar’ makes for a decent foot-tapping number; thanks to Sunidhi Chauhan’s silky vocals. ‘Window Taley’, ‘Gamey Gamey’ and ‘Sukriya’ barely register in your memory.
Verdict
Somewhere in the middle of Chatrapathi, an exasperated Shiv screams, ‘Yeh sab kya ho raha hain.’ If only we could travel across the screen and tell him, “We feel you, bro.”
