The first question that you ask yourself before watching any movie is what it is about. If the basic plot is uninteresting, you refrain from watching it. But what happens when the movie is not about what it promised? There are two possibilities: Either the movie is far from what it promised, in which case it leads to disappointment; or the movie supersedes its promise and takes you to a whole new level of awe, in which case you are absolutely blown away! Sadly, Chauranga belongs to the former.
When the premise of a film reads: A Dalit boys writes a love letter to a Brahmin girl, you know there is an explosive content at hand. As viewers, you cannot possibly miss a story of forbidden love. But that excitement fades away when you discover that the movie just summarily touches the subject and doesn't dare to explore it in the unbounded space of creative freedom.
Chauranga tells the story of Santu, an adolescent boy in an unnamed village of India, furtively climbing a tree daily to take a peek at Mona, the daughter of a Brahmin politician of the village. Santu's mother works at his cowshed and has an illicit affair with him in exchange for his generosity to pay for her elder son Bajrangi's education.
When Bajrangi returns to the village for his holidays, he learns of Santu's infatuation with Mona, and upon his request, agrees to write a love letter for him. The mayhem that follows was supposed to be the main plot of the movie but it gets lost in capturing the myriad facets of the caste discrimination and subjugation in India.
While the movie begins with a lot of promise, employing a cyclical sequence of scene development and story progression, it loses its flavor once it tries to highlight the caste hypocrisy in India. It travels many roads but never seems to reach a destination. A few funny, a few shocking scenes pique your interest but it is quickly drowned by the inconsistent story line.
Things do take a satisfying dramatic turn towards the end but by then it has been one sorry dragging experience. You wish writer-director Bikas Ranjan Mishra focused on the core of the script, instead of the subplots. At one point, you feel Chauranga is a tale of forbidden love; at another, you feel it is an exploration of deranged sexual appetites. What is this movie about? This question has been fiddled with.
Yet, Chauranga deserves appreciation for its bold content. Its performers do justice to their characters and the technical elements of the film enhance the viewing experience as well. A special mention of the sound design which uses entirely natural sounds to create tense situations. This is commendable without any doubt. Likewise, the cinematography takes use of natural light and presents a very realistic environment for the viewers. You wish the screenplay too had the same focus as these two departments.
Topics on caste inequality are rarely touched upon in Indian cinemas. In this respect, kudos to Chauranga for taking the plunge. It may not be more than a one time watch, but it certainly has paved the way for similar movies like Fandry and Sairat to be taken seriously.
A healthy 6 out of 10 for Chauranga.
