CHHALAANG An average formula-driven film that offers no real surprises

FILMMAKER Hansal Mehta and actor Rajkummar Rao have teamed up for multiple movies in the past seven years, but this light-hearted comedydrama, which recently premiered on Amazon Prime, is their most commercial outing yet and far removed from the harder hitting dramas they usually deliver.

The story revolves around a good-for-nothing PE instructor, who remains disinterested in his job until a beautiful new computer teacher starts working at the same school and sparks some enthusiasm in him. All is going well until a more qualified PE teacher becomes a rival for his job and potentially the woman he has fallen in love with. What follows is a contest between the two men, involving students, with seemingly everything at stake.

The simplistic story starts off as an interesting character driven drama and then evolves into a predictable journey of an underdog, which has been seen so many times before. There are nice moments scattered throughout it, witty one-liners and fine performances from a solid lead cast, but it doesn’t really offer up anything new.

Chhalaang ends up ticking multiple boxes of a formula-driven Bollywood film and does it quite well. There are no real surprises in a comedy-drama that had plenty of scope to be more original than it turns out to be. Nushrratt Bharuccha is wasted in her role and an actress of her stature deserved something better.

Chhalaang is the kind of film that will give a quick Bollywood fix, but isn’t one that will have you completely hooked during its running time. It is just an average film die-hard fans of Bollywood will enjoy when there is nothing else do.

This movie is also a sign that Hansal Mehta and Rajkummar Rao should perhaps return to doing the more serious cinema, which has served them so well until now.