Chhatrapati Movie Review: There is a scene in the second half of the film when our action hero Shiva (played by Bellamkonda Srinivas) is sitting in his car, confused by the turn of events in his life and says to his friends, “Yeh sab kya ho raha Is. I immediately replied to the on-screen character, “Sam, what’s happening!” Chhatrapati asks you this question again and again, perhaps every 20 minutes and surprisingly, the film is only two hours and a few minutes long.
A remake of the Telugu film of the same name, which was released in 2005 and starred Prabhas, Chhatrapati marked the Bollywood debut of Bellamkonda Srinivas. Directed by VV Vinayak, known for his action-comedy and masala films, Chhatrapati has Srinivas sharing the screen with Nushrat Bharucha, Sharad Kelkar, Bhagyashree and Karan Singh Chhabra.
The film is dated, appears to be the early 2000s – based on the old-style phones used in the film – and revolves around a boy named Shiva and his half-brother Ashok. Born in Pakistan, siblings and their mother (played by Bhagyashree) are forced to move to a small seaside village in Gujarat in 1985. Unfortunately, Shiva is estranged from his family due to the chaos that occurs during the evacuation.
Shiva and some local villagers seek the help of a powerful village chief who orders the migrants to sign their lives over to him. Shiva and his friends are forced to become slaves of the village head and do illegal things to ensure that their lives are saved. Years pass and Shiva’s tolerance of servitude is often tested. However, he refrains from acting on his anger. Instead, he decides to spend his time searching for his long-lost mother and brother with the help of Nushrat Bharucha’s character. His quest soon ends but his obstacles do not. The film follows his fight against the injustice meted out to the people of his village and his path to reuniting with his mother.
Now, I haven’t seen the original movie so I may not be the right person to compare. However, the concept of Chatrapati is not bad on paper. A normal family is lost in chaos, one child turns out to be good while the other turns out to be bad only to be put through situations that test their characters and parenting in Bollywood is a tried and tested formula. The film’s story writer V. Vijayendra Prasad has incorporated all the elements and characters to make it a masala watch, even if it feels dated.
However, the screenplay, dialogues and uneven editing make the film a bit difficult to watch. Chhatrapati seems to have stitched together a series of scenes to ensure a timely release. Lots of continuity errors and location errors are visible. You can easily guess that some scenes were not shot in a small village in Bhavnagar (where the story is set), but in a luxury hotel in Mumbai’s Juhu area, leaving us to wonder whether director VV Vinayak was away Let’s try to be factually correct with the timeline as well.
In addition to the error in locations, props were also conveniently introduced into the scenes out of the blue, leaving you confused as to where it appeared from. For example, just before the climax scene, Shiva declares that he will lead the village to freedom. While he stands in the rain and gives a midnight independence speech, out of nowhere, an umbrella appears and is carried out of the venue beneath him, signifying his elevated prominence. In another scene, where Shiva and his girlfriend are attacked, it is shown that their car is on the side of the road. However, suddenly, it’s in the middle of the road and surrounded by enemy cars. From these scenes it seems that a lot was cut to reduce the duration and in the process, the makers turned a blind eye to the continuity.
Nevertheless, Chhatrapati boasts of some impressive, slow-motion action sequences, which is very common in Telugu films. The action sequences are well choreographed and it surprisingly draws you into the film more than the drama going on in the film.
The biggest disappointment from the film is the main four actors. It’s hard to judge whether it’s bad writing or a lack of direction for Bollywood audiences, but Bellamkonda Srinivas, Nushrat Bharucha, Bhagyashree and Karan Singh Chhabra deliver uneven performances. Srinivas tries his best to deliver a massive performance in the style of Rohit Shetty meets Salman Khan and manages to deliver in a few places but there are scenes in which he looks confused as to how to emote. The awkward change of scenery – from a relatively somber scene to an immediate switch to a song – served as a hindrance to his performance.
Nushrat feels that she was only roped in to act in four songs in the film. He has only five scenes in which he is given the scope to act but that too before you understand what is happening. Honestly, Bhagyashree deserved a better and toned down role. His emotional scenes have been written in such a messy way that it is difficult to sympathize with him. Karan felt vulnerable as a brother with gray shades.
Chhatrapati’s cronies included Sharad Kelkar, Sahil Vaid, and Amit Shivdas Nair, among others. The cinematography has also been kept lavish, to match the overall vibe of the film.
Ground Level: Chatrapati is good on paper but deserves better execution. The film feels like it wants to be a big Salman Khan film with Rohit Shetty’s vision, but doesn’t go along with the idea.