After a hiatus of two years, cinemas are back at work and busy with not one but five Pakistani films released country wide ( it’s another story that they’ve been taken over by Dr Strange). With so many to choose from we decided `to go for the underdogs first. Why is Chakkar the underdog you may wonder, to answer that, they were given the least number of cinema screens/shows compared to the others. However, that wasn’t the only reason we opted for Chakkar but the fact that they dared to experiment a genre this country hasn’t seen much of on the big screen. They decided to stand out and we are all here for it!
The murder mystery directed and produced by Yasir Nawaz revolves around two identical twin sisters Zara and Mehreen played by Neelum Munir. Zara is a girl-next-door living with her really hot-tempered husband Kabir (Ahsan Khan) whereas Mehreen is an absolute diva whose film career is in trouble because of her attitude among other things.
It is developed that Zara’s husband hates Mehreen and doesn’t want the two sisters to have any contact at all. One day while the husband flies out of the city, the sisters decide to swap lives for a bit so Zara can spice up her boring routine and Mehreen can take a break from her busy life.
Unfortunately, during the switch one of the sisters gets murdered which starts a quest for Inspector Shahzad (Yasir Nawaz) to find out who did it.
One thing is for sure that the movie had the audience hooked. More in the latter half than the start. The seriousness of the film was lightened by some bits of comedy by Zara’s friendly-neighbor Cheema Sahab (Ahmad Hassan) and Naveed Jawad playing the role of Inspector Shahzad’s assistant. Did they make the audience laugh? Yes. But not always. Cheema Sahab with his wig was too over-the-top at times resulting in awkward silence in the cinema hall during the failed jokes. Nonetheless, the jokes that were funny made us root for him and he turned out to be kind of a hero at the end as well. So here’s to Advocate Cheema Sahab!
The film also has three songs the first of which came so abruptly that it had us confused till it ended. Chirrya – an item number by Neelum Muneer featured a lot cameos namely by Shoaib Malik, HSY, Shehryar Munawar, Mohib Mirza. Unfortunately, none of them could save Neelum’s poorly choreographed song. The song however is somewhat catchy.
Talking about Neelum, she disappointed us with her acting because we know she is capable of much more. Muneer played a double role yet we couldn’t connect with any of the characters. Her dialogue delivery was emotion-less at times which was upsetting because she could have done so much with the two characters.
Ahsan Khan and Yasir Nawaz’s acting too wasn’t anything that left us amazed. It wasn’t bad but it’s what we have seen before.
Chakkar’s story-line was amusing but we feel it could’ve been done in a better way. The second half of the film escalated quickly which is great because they didn’t drag the story with unnecessary bits as most do. It was to the point – a bit too much at times because that made the shots a bit jumpy.
The biggest drawback of the film is the lack of character development. Some background story of the main cast would’ve made us connect to the characters more instead of not at all. The brutal death of one sister didn’t leave an impact as it should have because of zero connection with us. The song ‘Dil Harray’ which is beautifully shot could’ve been perfect had there been chemistry between Neelum and Ahsan. The reason for this lack is again because of no background story of the couple leaving us detached with them.
Furthermore, dark color grading of the film would have made it flawless for the cinema because the start gave it the feel of a really good telefilm instead of a dark murder mystery.
What we did enjoy was the investigation process of Inspector Shahzad and his team especially their goofy bits. The film offers a lot of surprises leaving the audience in a Chakkar with their plot twist. It is entertaining, and definitely unique amongst the movies released. We encourage everyone to give the film a chance so more movies can be made of this genre – in a better way too in the future.
In the end I would like to mention that atmosphere of the cinema while the movie played. The crowd kept guessing who the murderer could be – though their loud discussions seemed annoying at the time but it also shows that the movie had them excited. So much so that the young girls next to me at the end of the movie said they’d watch it again in the cinema!
That says a lot.
Good job Team Chakkar! Hoping for an even better one next time!
I’m a media graduate who rants not so much on @rants_of_a_millennial_wife
