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Review: Chamku
Director Kabeer Kaushik orchestrates several action scenes with chutzpah, along with Tinu Varma. But the director who earlier helmed the gutsy Sehar, is not a smooth storyteller this time, writes Khalid Mohamed.
Chamku
Cast: Bobby Deol, Priyanka Chopra
Direction: Kabeer Kaushik
Rating: **
He’s sullen, an eyebrow is permanently arched and the lips are tightly-shuttered. A man of few words and moods, Chaman aka Chamku (Bobby Deol) has been programmed to kill. To be fair, director Kaushik orchestrates several action scenes with chutzpah, along with Tinu Varma. A slug-out on a train, for instance, pushes you to the edge of the seat.
Director Kabeer Kaushik, who earlier helmed the gutsy Sehar, is not a smooth storyteller this time. Picking elements from Zanjeer (child watches family murdered) and the French jawbreaker La Femme Nikita, he strives to tell you about a kid who grows into an adult, programmed by the government, to kill. So far, so bang-bang.
Trouble bubbles at a shopping mall when Chamku finally sees the thakur (Snake Eyes) who had exterminated his family. Flashback, flashback, flashback. Too many, and also there’s an excessive use of fade-outs, which slacken the pace.
The romance between our male Nikita and Priyanka Chopra is strictly sing-song-sang. The project could have been a gutsy, feel-angry actioner like Ghayal. En route, Kaushik lost himself in the back alleys of the screenplay and couldn’t find his way out. Surely Bobby Deol and Priyanka Chopra could have done with better-written roles and some chamak in this Chamku.
