A Meandering Period Drama

These days, the benchmark to judge military actioners and period dramas is quite low. It's a relief if Pakistanis and Mughals are portrayed as characters and not caricatures.

- KARTIK BHARDWAJ

These days, the benchmark to judge military actioners and period dramas is quite low. It's a relief if Pakistanis and Mughals are portrayed as characters and not caricatures. Ok, this isn't just chest-thumping. This is a story. As a reviewer, while watching Chhaava, I bask in this realization for a little too long. The film earns my praise only because it is competent. The production design doesn't look cheap, the cinematography is decent and the film doesn't confuse praise for one with the vilification of the other. There is an attempt to understand a historical figure even if it is oftentimes scattered and unimaginative. But all possibility of nuance is soon lost to noise. Loud and proud, Chhaava adulates its subject to a level that it becomes more plain than profound.

Based on the Marathi novel