Death to the critics Starring: Dulquer Salman, Shreya Dhanwanthary, Sunny Deol, Pooja Bhatt, and Saranya Ponvannan Rating: No rating bec...
Death to the critics
Starring: Dulquer Salman, Shreya
Dhanwanthary, Sunny Deol, Pooja Bhatt, and Saranya Ponvannan
Rating: No rating because this critic fears
for his life (Ha, Ha, Ha)
Chup is a unique film. Director R. Balki (credited for the story too) churns out a gripping thriller, but with a difference. Here the serial killer on the loose only silences those film critics who have either been too kind or too unkind to films, especially the ones they find depressing. Balki pays a perfect tribute not just to Guru Dutt, but to his timeless classic Kaagaz Ke Phool. So beautifully has he blended the cult classic with Chup along with Kaagaz Ke Phool’s timeless music, that Balki deserves a huge round of applause for this memorable feat.
ACP Arvind Mathur (a surprisingly wonderful Sunny Deol in a supporting role) is assigned the murder case of a prominent film critic Nitin Srivastava. What bewilders Mathur is the way the critic has been murdered. A few days later, another critic Irshad Ali too is killed in a brutal way (split in two under a local train). A week later yet another critic is murdered albeit in a brutally bizarre manner. Arvind discovers a pattern in the killings and comes to the conclusion that it is a work of a serial killer as the critics are being killed as per the descriptions, ratings, and stars they have given to the movies they have reviewed.
On the other hand, Danny (a mind-blowing
performance by the dashing Dulquer Salman who breezes past his difficult
characterization ever so effortlessly) is a florist who falls in love with a
journalist (a beautiful Shreya Dhanwanthary who leaves a mark) who has just
recently shifted to Mumbai along with her blind mother (played by the adorable
Saranya Ponvannan). The love story between Danny and Nila blossoms even as yet
another murder baffles Mathur. Finally, ACP Arvind takes the help of his
psychiatrist friend Dr. Zenobia Shroff (a bulky and unrecognizable Pooja Bhatt)
to nab the killer.
Amitabh Bachchan (a favourite of Balki) delivers the most telling comment on film critics. In fact, he is Balki’s mouthpiece. He is also credited for the end-credit music. As DQ says in the film ‘There cannot be a film without Big B’.
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