Written by: Farheen Abdullah
Posted on: June 10, 2019 | 
| 中文
(L-R) Haya, Luqman, Haroon, Chaudry, Sameer, Zoya
It is no longer a surprise that every year Lollywood directors jump onto the bandwagon of releasing their latest movies on Eid. 2019 has been no different, and local cinemas have been hosting back to back shows of Wrong No.2 and Chhalawa, with Baaji set to release by the end of June.
Featuring popular faces from the local television industry, Chhalawa was the story of Zoya (Mehwish Hayat), who wished to wed Sameer (Azfar Rehman). Her father (Mehmood Aslam) acted as a barrier and decided to marry her off to a cousin instead. The story seemed simple enough at face value, and in an ideal situation, the movie itself would have had more to it, but unfortunately, Chhalawa failed to impress or surprise me. The movie was two hours long, which was ample time to produce a decent screenplay, but Wajahat Rauf’s film only seemed to be an elaborate version of the trailer.
What was most surprising was that Chhalawa had all the ingredients for a good movie: talented actors, a beautiful location in the form of a haveli, vibrant costumes, and decent music. However, Wajahat Rauf and Yasir Hussain presented the audience with a screenplay which lacked structure, and seemed to have been written in a rush. There were moments during the film where there was no context provided, for example to Sameer and Zoya’s meeting and Zoya’s mother passing away. The sequence of the scenes was also abrupt and confusing at times. For instance, Chaudhry (Mehmood Aslam) has a heart attack in one scene, and the next frame shows him resting at home in his bed. There was also a sudden emphasis on Zoya’s sneakers towards the end of the film with no explanation given, but then the movie was full of abrupt transitions, paying tribute to title of the film.
Shiraz Uppal has done a great job as the music director, though there were not a lot of songs. However, most of the song sequences seemed forced and did nothing to push the plot forward. For example, the title song, Chhalawa, showed the wedding of a family member who was not mentioned again throughout the rest of the film. The song itself was catchy though, and Nirmal Roy, Neha Chaudhry, and Jabar Abbas have done justice to the vocals. Chirrya, on the other hand, was poor with regard to the lyrics and choreography, and was definitely inappropriate in an otherwise family-friendly film.
While Chhalawa lacked a strong storyline, it also lacked originality. From the poster featuring Mehwish Hayat in sneakers, which looked strikingly similar to Sonam Kapoor’s film poster of Dolly ki Doli, to Azfar Rehman’s exit resembling that of Ranbir Kaboor’s in the song Kabira from the film Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, the movie appeared to be largely influenced by Bollywood.
Perhaps Chhalawa’s strongest aspect was its cast but to say that they did an outstanding job would be an overstatement. The actors, including Mehwish Hayat who typically has a larger-than-life onscreen presence in her other films, only did what was required of them by the script. However, any loopholes in the plot could not have been their fault. Zara Noor Abbas, as a supporting character acted very well and even performed better than Mehwish Hayat on certain occasions. Azfar Rehman and Asad Siddiqui, too, did a decent enough job.
Despite its flaws and shortcomings, Chhalawa managed to save itself from being a terrible movie. It had a lot of room for improvement, and had more thought been put into the storyline, the team could have managed to put together a better film.
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