Chhaava deserves 2 stars for the historically half-baked film that it is, but 4 stars just for its attempt on making a film on Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj, observes Prasanna D Zore.
This is the age of action masala films.
Audiences, these days, call them family entertainers or just paisa vasool entertainers.
Chhaava, produced by Dinesh Vijan and directed by Laxman Ramchandra Utekar, fits the bill where history, facts -- and controversies -- are conveniently sidestepped just so that box office collections keep ringing in and the film grosses multiples of Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion).
When biographical sketches of iconic history-makers -- Tanaji (who on Maharashtrian earth claps and whistles when Tanaji kills Uday Bhan?) was first and now Chhaava builds on the defiant valour of Chhatrapati Shivaji's son Sambhaji, who was mercilessly tortured by Aurangzeb -- are made without any passion for historic perspective or facts, the result is disappointment.
Vijan-Utekar have done their bit to exploit history and acts of bravery against all odds of the most-neglected Maharashtra icon Sambhaji to mint box office success.
So there are over-the-top fighting scenes, flying and swashbuckling warriors (even Ashutosh Rana, as the indomitable army general Hambirrrao Mohite gets to fly and fight), swords and bows and arrows swishing and piercing through bodies, and blood splattering all over the screen in five-six battle scenes.
The battles are against 800,000 soldiers, 50,000 horses and 30,000 elephants of the Mughal army led by Aurangzeb (Akshaye Khanna), as they barge into the Deccan to finish off Sambhaji, the Maratha Empire and Shivaji's 'soch', as Aurangzeb mutters under his breath.
The film begins with Sambhaji and his Marathas invading Burhanpur and burning it down to ashes.
The action scene between thw Maratha army and the Mughal army commandeered by Khan Zaman makes Sambhaji look like the cartoon character Chhota Bheem, especially, when he spins in the air and aims his fall to break the jaw of a lion, an act which has no documented historical evidence.
The Battle of Burhanpur (in 1681, soon after Sambhaji became the Chhatrapati of the Maratha empire when he was crowned on January 16 that year) was not the only battle that made Sambhaji a force to reckon with.
But Utekar and his team of writers and researchers are found wanting in depicting the rise of Sambhaji as they give a pass to the Battle of Kalyan (1682-1683), Battle of Panhala and Vishalgad (1684), his naval battle against the Siddis during the siege of Janjira (1682-1685), to mention just a few, that he fought himself.
When Vijan-Utekar and Vicky Kaushal, who plays Chhaava aka Sambhaji Raje, kept making the point that the Maratha king fought 127 battles and won all of them during his reign between 1681 and 1689 in the film's teaser, one expected the 160.50-minute film to showcase some of Sambhaji's most remarkable campaigns.
While Utekar spends full 10 minutes portraying the gore and blood at the Battle of Burhanpur he misses out on showcasing Sambhaji's shrewdness as a military strategist, his linguistic skills, his knowledge of guerilla warfare and his skills as a guerilla fighter.
While one admits that it is not possible to pack in so much depth to a character in a film -- after all, Chhaava is a film and not a Web series -- one cannot forgive the filmmakers for brushing over important battles that made Sambhaji who he was.
While Chhaava is a historically half-baked film, one has to give a big thumbs-up to the makers for attempting to make Sambhaji a national icon.
A thumbs-up also to Utekar for sparing the audience the blood and gore and merciless torture during the 30-minute climax where a captured Sambhaji is chained, his eye gouged out and his tongue cut even while making the point that for all his recklessness and mis-steps, Sambhaji remained undefeated and unbowed before Aurangzeb.
The climax is vividly symbolic in its treatment of how it was not Sambhaji who suffered the pain of physical torture but a broken and helpless Aurangzeb who, despite all the force and violence he heaped upon Sambhaji, couldn't succeed in making Sambhaji surrender before him.
Given the times that we live in, it would have paid dividends for any director-producer to use the film to spew communal venom and spread hatred but not Utekar-Vijan.
A mighty thank you for that as well, sirs!
Talking about Chhaava's music, A R Rahman has become monotonous with his melodies after Lagaan.
Vicky Kaushal and Rashmika Mandanna have done a good job as the Chhatrapati and his Maharani.
Divya Dutta is completely wasted as Sambhaji's scheming half-mother.
Chhaava deserves two stars for the historically half-baked film that it is, but four stars just for its attempt on making a film on Sambhaji.
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