Busy Week? No time to catch up on your movies? How about a 15-minute short mid-week for a quick sneaky watch? And what better than a film that has already got hold-your-breath a whopping 125 million views on YouTube??
ASHOK’s FIVE reasons to watch #Chutney on YouTube https://g.co/kgs/6Kovjn . This is a “LARGE” short film and part of the Royal Stag Barrel Select category directed by Jyoti Kapur Das and starring Tisca Chopra in a brilliant avatar. She has also co-written the script. Set in Model Town, this film is about a story narrated by a middle-class housewife that serves to put her husband’s paramour and the household servant in their place with derision, threat and fear all woven into it.
1. Watch #Chutney for an outstanding performance from an almost unrecognizable Tisca. She plays the dark skinned, buck toothed Vanita who is unassuming and almost simpleton like in the first half and then leaves you almost terrified at the end with the lace of menace in her voice.
2. The film is representative of the typical middle-class society in India, replete with male chauvinism, sexist overtones, gossip mongering and backbiting. In the last frame, the camera pans out with a top shot that shows millions of similar homes and where a similar story could potentially play out.
3. #Chutney boasts a high-power cast that comprises Tisca Chopra, Rasika Duggal, Adil Hussain and Sumit Gulati. Sumit almost carries on from where he left off in Talvar with that leering attitude and lecherous look.
4. The screenplay manages to keep the tension building all through and that is why it succeeds. The narration, character development (remember the reference to Vanita’s origins in Ghaziabad) and the acting serve to keep this as a high point in the film. What the characters choose to do and perhaps more importantly, what they do not is what builds the film.
5. One aspect I want to talk about is ambiguity. Hindi cinema has not really leveraged this aspect of real life. The one thing that #Chutney stands out for is how they choose to leave some aspects of the story ambiguous. It is for the audience to figure out what happens next or whether Rasika has bought into the story. And this for me is a fine nuance that works!
#Chutney is a creepy little film that can leave you unsettled, especially the next time you have a plate of pakodas and pudina chutney in front of you. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Go see the film now. I am going with a 3.6 on 5 for #Chutney
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