Chamku

Rating : 4/10
Running Time : 134 Minutes
Release Date : 29th August ‘08
Director & Writer : Kabeer Kaushik; Music : Monty Sharma
Starring : Bobby Deol, Irrfan Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Akhilendra Mishra

Not bad but with a little effort could’ve been great.
Its about a kid who watches his father get shot in front of him and then grows up to become a hitman, first for the Naxalites in Bihar and later on for a covert government department headed by Irfaan Khan. Bobby Deol, the lead character, is also one of those guys who just refuses to die – he is shot twice but survives miraculously. He also falls in love with Priyanka in fast forward mode – one second they’re saying ‘Hi’ and shaking hands, the next they are singing romantic songs.
The movie is studded with very good character actors (Vishnu Mohan, Danny Dengzopa, Suhasini Mulay, Akhilendra Misra etc) but very poor character building – we get to know / like or dislike no one. There are unnecessary sub-plots – I’m even of the opinion that Priyanka’s character is to an extent redundant. Bobby plays his part well, with a nice deadpan expression, but is given little to play with. Songs and Irrfan’s performance were terrible. They should’ve kept it slick, shown more of his kills (the planning / the thought process), given us a reason to love or hate a couple of more characters and cut out the crap. Then it would’ve at least worked as a good action thriller.
Having said all that, I went with very low expectations which were exceeded slightly, in no small means due to the start, which was very well done and unexpected – about the only unpredictable thing in the movie. Watch if a fan of Bobby or a die hard fan of Priyanka. Or, even better, wait till its out on TV and watch just the start.