Chhaava

Chhaava is much more than just an action-packed period drama; it’s a film that resonates with its historical significance while maintaining its emotional core. With impeccable direction, a remarkable performance by Vicky Kaushal, and electrifying action sequences, the film stands as a testament to what high-quality cinema can achieve. Dinesh Vijan, under the banner of Maddock Films, continues to showcase his ability to blend historical grandeur with modern filmmaking, ensuring that every frame of Chhaava is as visually striking as it is emotionally impactful. With Chhaava, Utekar has delivered a film that doesn’t just recount history; it immerses you in it, creating an experience that will leave you both in awe and emotionally wrecked. It’s a celebration of the warriors who fought for India’s freedom, and it’s a must-watch for anyone who believes in the power of storytelling that transcends time.

The film showcases regality and grandeur, adrenaline-pumping action sequences and punchy dialogues, but interestingly, it does all of that and more, while ensuring it doesn't lose track of the plot and the narrative that runs beautifully across all its frames. This is a good watch, whether you're a history fan or not.

As a one-off set piece in a historical epic, perhaps it works, but for a viewer expecting to get even the simplest of glimpses into war-time strategy, it’s disappointing. The set pieces of this guerilla warfare are more impressive in their execution but appear disjointed because we have no idea of how or why they came to be. And that’s because the film isn’t interested in painting a story, it’s interested in the reverence of a ruler and that doesn’t make for an interesting film. There’s a clear hesitation to actually delve into the life of its subject and that’s why, the more the film tries to tell you this story in its way, the less inclined you are to trust it.

At the end of 161 minutes of Chhaava, based on the high-points of the life of Sambhaji Maharaj, the son of Shivaji Maharaj, you are left with two chief thoughts. How do you pull off a film which talks up a historical figure not as well known as his illustrious parent, without us wondering: how much is fact, and how much fiction? And the other, which is the reason you manage to sit through this ultra-loud, ultra-violent re-creation of a slice of the 17th century Hindustan is the total commitment on display by its lead actor to the titular character: Vicky Kaushal becomes Chhaava (‘son of a lion’), whose story the film adapts from the Marathi novel of the same name by Shivaji Sawant.