Chhaava movie review: The torture porn in the climax of Vicky Kaushal’s film reminds you of the systematic flaying of Jesus in ‘The Passion of Christ’.

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.

The film opens as it means to go on: an attack on a Mughal outpost by a band of brave Maratha warriors, led by Sambhaji, in which the latter are comprehensively victorious. The camera stays close to Kaushal’s Sambhaji, who wades into battle as if it is his natural element, cleaving heads and chopping limbs, which we see in excruciatingly bloody detail.

This sets the tone for the rest of it. The repeated attempts of the Mughals, led by the shifty Aurangzeb (Akshaye Khanna), who for some reason is addressed as ‘Aurang’, to finish off the Marathas are kept at bay even as the hidden enemies within Sambhaji’s ranks work to topple their own.

In between the non-stop frantic set-pieces of soldiers-and-swords-and-horses, we get scenes of domesticity. The doe-eyed Rashmika Mandanna, who has become the go-to actor for the faithful-wife-of-strongmen whether it is in the South or North, welcomes her wounded valorous husband home, even as plots are being hatched up by his scheming step-mother (Divya Dutta) and her collaborators, to supplant our hero.

‘Chhaava’s painting of Mughal invaders as black is of a piece with the current atmosphere, but we’ve got to the point where the film’s attempt at balance have to noted : Akbar ( Neil Bhoopalam) may not have been shown as being as blood-thirsty as Aurangzeb, the evil emperor who smashed all opposition to his ascent, but at every point he, Akbar, is the supplicant, and Sambhaji, with his constant ‘guhaar’ of ‘swaraaj’, is all powerful. When not hacking off body-parts, and sweet-talking his wife, Sambhaji is mainly in the company of his faithful cohorts, an uncle ( a heavily-mustachioed Ashutosh Rana), and a poet-cum-best-friend ( Vineet Singh), both effective.

Akshaye Khanna, practically unrecognizable under the prosthetic work as the white-haired, ageing Aurangzeb, obsessed with fashioning the end of the lion’s cub, manages to create a few interesting moments for himself. But soon enough he is shown as losing the plot, even when he has his enemy, bleeding and torn, strung up on a post.

The torture porn, supervised by Aurangzeb’s cruel daughter (Diana Penty, who’s having a bit of a costumed revival in period dramas), reminds you of the systematic flaying of Jesus in Mel Gibson’s ‘The Passion of Christ’. It is relentless, and ends, as does the film, in an exhausting blur.

Chhava
Chhaava movie cast: Vicky Kaushal, Rashmika Mandanna, Akshaye Khanna, Ashutosh Rana, Divya Dutta, Vineet Singh, Diana Penty, Neil Bhoopalam
Chhaava movie director: Laxman Utekar
Chhaava movie rating: 2.5 stars

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