Chup Review; ‘ Chup’ gives a thrilling warning for the fake review writers.Review for CHUP: Revenge of the Artist

•Language: HINDI 

•Duration: 02 Hour 16 Minutes. 

•Genre: Psychological Crime Thriller. 

•REVIEW BY ARUNJYOTHI R 

•POSITIVES: 

1: DIRECTION 

2: STORY, SCREENPLAY AND DIALOGUES 

3: PERFORMANCES OF ACTORS 

4: CINEMATOGRAPHY 

5: EDITING 

6: BACKGROUND SCORE 

• NEGATIVES:

1: The scene before the climax should have been done better. 

•ONE WORD: ‘ Chup’ gives a thrilling warning for the fake review writers. 

•STORY IDEA: 

The story of the film revolves around Mumbai city where a serial killer is on loose. The killer targets film critics and gives a rating on their head and to capture the killer Aravind Mathur leads the investigation. On the other hand, the film focuses on the florist named Danny and journalist Nila Menon and their love track. So who actually is the killer and why is he killing the film critics and does Danny and Nila Menon have any connection with the killings? And can Aravind Mathur find the culprit? The rest is on the big screen. 

•ANALYSIS OF THE DIRECTION, STORY, SCREENPLAY AND DIALOGUES:

The film Chup: The Revenge of an Artist is written and directed by R. Balki. And also with R. Balki the writers like Raja Sen and Rishi Virmani had joined for writing the screenplay. The movie is produced by Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, Jayantilal Gada, Anil Naidu and Gauri Shinde. The production company of the film is by Hope Productions and Pen India Limited does the distribution. With a running time of 135 minutes the film is currently running in theatres with ‘A’ rated censor certificate. 

I shudder at the thought of what your state of mind is when you review a movie, give it bad reviews, don’t give enough ratings, and finally someone comes after you to hunt you down. This movie deals with the above story, and as a movie critic, this movie really impressed me. This movie gave me a different kind of cinematic experience because I was able to connect well with the story situations. The different kinds and types of movie criticism were showcased in the film, some do it ethically and some do it as business, so the world of movie reviewing was shown effectively.

The concept of this film is interesting and how the director R. Balki presented it makes this movie more compelling. Serial killer movies are nowadays common, but here R. Balki had brought some different kinds of treatment to his direction and script. The story of this film is wonderfully written out, the characters, their relationships, the aspects of film criticism, the killing methods, the motive, the subplots, the investigation methods and the psychological behaviour of the killer were written out amazingly by R. Balki. So I would say that the basic story of this film was magnificently crafted by R. Balk I, and it was carried out with a brilliant screenplay and making. 

The screenplay of CHUP: Revenge of the Artist is completely engaging and thrilling. The tagline of the title is ‘Revenge of an Artist’ and the revenge shown in the film was crafted realistically. It’s a psychological film with a serial killer and surrounded by many brutal killings so the reason behind these crimes and the intention and motive of the killer has the content to attract and engage us. And on the other hand the movie has a heart-welming love story. So the screenplay of this film is blended with the elements like crime, romance, psychology, police investigation and the world of film critics. 

Right from the beginning the movie promises us something different, the serial killer and his killings felt normal but it was placed at a unique premise and the atmosphere surrounding it makes it more gripping. In between the brutal crimes we can see the romance of hero and heroine, and to be honest it was not at all making the situations awkward. The romance between the hero and the heroine added more power to the scenes ahead and I was curious to know how the crimes in the film would affect their relationship. Also how the heroine and hero will connect with the crime and serial killer also added more excitement to the viewing experience. 

The first half of the film largely focuses on the hero and heroine, how they meet, how they started to like each other and finally how they falling in love was convincingly shown. Those scenes never gave any lagging and it was purely romantic. The investigation to find the killer is also followed in the first half, those scenes had some unexpected surprises. Also who is the killer, the first half ends by revealing it, and we can easily predict the killer but the way he kills and the reason he expresses will shock you. The second half largely focuses on the journey of the police officer to find the killer, it was intense and the investigation method was nice. But the cat and mouse play between the police and killer was not that effective, those scenes were not properly used. It would have been more thrilling if the director had focused more on their scenes. 

The killer’s backstory is shown in the climax and the director has brilliantly presented the reason why he became a psychopath without any unwanted drama. The entire climax portion was thrilling, I was able to feel the emotion of the killer, it was having life and emotion and at the same it will make us emotional. The scene just before the ultimate climax was average. I was expecting some interesting combination scenes of Dulquer Salmaan and Sunny Deol but it looked average. I’m sure those scenes looked brilliant in the script but when shot for the movie, the scenes were not up to the standards that the movie maintained. But things were sorted out by the marvelous ending, the ultimate climax was exhilarating with the best thrilling scene and the acting of Dulquer had made it more impressive. 

•PERFORMANCE OF ACTORS: 

The performance of Dulquer Salmaan, Sunny Deol and Shreya Dhanwanthary is one of the major highlights of this film. I loved the way it was performed, it was authentic and felt natural. The braveness of Dulquer to choose this role is appreciated and no doubt the character Danny is one of the best in his career. His acting style and the way he portrayed the emotion of his character was brilliant. His character deeply goes through different sets of emotions and how he presented it and how he expressed it showcased his natural acting skills. There is a mystery surrounding his character and how Dulquer balances it will make you stun. He had also perfectly given the dialogues, the timing was precise and one can feel the kind of emotions in his dialogues. The climax portions of Dulquer Salman was outstanding, the revealing of the ultimate truth were beautifully acted by him. If I tell more about his character and acting it may lead to spoilers, he has given his best and the overall performance of Dulquer Salmaan deserves a full star rating. Sunny Deol delivered a shining performance, he was perfect to do the role of a police officer. The matured way of acting was making his performance unique. The sound modulation and the attitude he expressed as a committed police officer was nice to watch. His acting on solving and finding the clues matched the situations well and it’s a great comeback for Sunny Deol. Shreya Dhanwanthary also did a great job, her performance was top class. Her combination scene with Dulquer was good and she acted out brilliantly in the romantic and emotional scenes. The climax portion was handled effectively by Shreya Dhanwanthary, also the qualities of a committed journalist were authentically undertaken by her. Pooja Bhatt as the psychologist also did a notable performance and the way she looked and the way she gave hints about changing human psychological behaviour was fair. Saranya Ponvannan as Nila’s mother did a nice performance, her supporting role was having some touching moments of mother-daughter relationships. Rajeev Ravindranathan and Pyarali Nayani also did justice to their respective supporting roles.

•MUSIC, BACKGROUND SCORE:

The musical work for the film is composed by Amit Trivedi, Sneha Khanwalkar and S. D. Burman. The background score is tuned by Aman Pant. Swanand Kirkire and Sahir Ludhianvi had written the lyrics for the songs. The soundtrack of Chup: Revenge of the Artist consists of three songs and I loved all the songs. The song called “Mera Love Main” looked cool, it was nice to hear and the sound of Amit Trivedi was matching for the song. With the brilliant visuals and the screen presence of Dulquer the song had given a pleasing feel. The song “Gaya Gaya Gaya” was melodious, the song had a good romantic feel. The song had helped to showcase the chemistry of Dulquer and Shreya, their romance was driving through the songs beautifully. The voice of Rupali Moghe and Shashwant Singh suited the song and the lyrics of Swanand Kirkire were catchy. The final song “Ye Duniya Agar Mil Bhi Jaye” felt unique, the slow paced rhythm in the song and the vocals of Sneha Shankar had given a different feel. 

The background score in the film was top-class, the sound of cricket insect was placed at many scenes and it was creating an interesting mood. I felt those sounds of cricket insects as unique and whoever decided to bring those sounds is having a great level of thinking. For the crucial scene in the film the background score had helped to maintain a momentum, the mood of tension and curiosity was easily given by the good background score. The interval scene had the proper background score and the impact was great, the use of a Hindi song (don’t know the name of the song) was a great choice. Just before the interval the film reveals the killer and his way of killing, that scene was mixed with an old Hindi song and at the same time it was interesting and shocking to watch. The climax portions were equalised with the right background tunes and the tunes helped to create a big impact. The motive, the backstory and the face to face interaction of central characters in the climax was blended with satisfying background music. I really loved the background score and it’s another major winning highlight of this film. 

•TECHNICAL ASPECTS: 

The technicality of this film was fair and reasonable. The cinematography by Vishal Sinha was excellent. The visuals looked matching and his good shots and frames had created a different mood and atmosphere. The world of Danny looked unique, and that was largely due to the visuals captured by Vishal Sinha. He has cleverly given some eccentric shots and it will make us think what’s really going on with the central character. The close-up frames of Dulquer was nice, his character and the way he lives and the way he thinks and the different things he does was pointed out brilliantly with some adequate close-up shots. The visuals of the flower shop, the house of our hero and the way he speaks with himself was shot beautifully, the visuals which carry the alone space of Dulquer will blow our mind. The climax was magnificently shot, the lighting methods and the studio atmosphere was giving an extra impact. The visuals of the song “Gaya Gaya Gaya” also need special mention, the romantic scenes of Dulquer and Shreya were lovely to watch and it had some interesting wide angle frames. The scene which shows the brutal killing was also elegantly shot and it was also shocking to watch. The editing of Nayan H. K. Bhadra was satisfying, the length of the film was precise, and couldn’t feel dragged at any point. The transition of scene was matching and the colour grading had given a darkish tone. In the beginning those dark tones felt unnatural but slowly it synched perfectly and changed the mood and atmosphere of the film. 

•CONCLUSION:

So overall I enjoyed watching Chup: Revenge of the Artist, the film has got all the elements to entrain us. It’s thrilling and at the same time the movie brilliantly shows us the ethics which need to be followed in film reviewing. As a film critic, I was able to connect with the film very well and the film had given an unforgettable haunting experience. The direction of R. Balki was superb and I am sure that the solid script will make everyone engaged. The brilliant performance of Dulquer Salmaan, Sunny Deol and Shreya Dhanwanthary is also another attractive factor of this film. Therefore, I will recommend Chup: Revenge of the Artist to every audience and please don’t miss this thrilling cinematic experience from theatres. 

(And I would rate this film with four stars/5)

•VERDICT: A MUST-WATCH FILM. 

•RATING: 4/5