Thoughts on Chup

Here it is, yet another incoherent braindump of my thoughts, this time on the film Chup:

I love Guru Dutt’s style. It reminds me of The Great Gatsby (one of the few books I enjoyed reading). The lighting, the Jesus Christ shot, and the stories—All of it. All of it is amazing. Anything you’ve read anywhere else by any other Guru Dutt fan is true here as well. I loved Pyaasa and I loved Kaagaz Ke Phool the same as any other fan has. 

Well, maybe not as much as R. Balki I guess. Chup took it to a whole other level. I thought I was a bit crazy to be watching Pyaasa during AP Chemistry instead of paying attention, but Chup felt like someone wanted to remake Kaagaz Ke Phool but feared they couldn’t live up to it. 

Basically, Chup is about a serial killer who kills film critics for giving movies absurd reviews. Sunny Deol plays the head officer in charge of the investigation. It’s quite obvious who the killer is from the start, though. The further we go, the more it’s solidified, and eventually, you realize you’re right. But you just don’t know why. It’s the motive we lack for most of the movie, and that’s what kept the suspense going for me. 

The first half introduced two parallel stories, both connected very loosely by the idea of cinema. One story is the investigation behind the killer. The other is the love story between Danny (Dulquer Salmaan), a florist, and Nila (Shreya Dhanwanthary), an entertainment reporter and wannabe film critic. 

These two stories were fine as separate stories, but it felt like they were put together weirdly. The tone was off whenever the stories switched between each other. 

Something like this basically:

"BUT WHY WAS THE SERIAL KILLER DRAWING STARS ON THEIR FACES?"

"So yeah basically I grow flowers and I like you."

“OH MY GOD HIS GUTS ARE ON THE TRACKS!”

That’s how the first half felt. The stories needed more connection. As the viewer, you know it’s supposed to be connected, but the fact that it isn’t is just weird. Once you were into the scene, it felt nice. Especially the love track. That was nice (while it lasted…) The little dances in the rain, the flowers, the chai, the talking, the background music (ESPECIALLY THE BACKGROUND MUSIC) were all so nice. 

I loved the background music so much. The songs from Pyaasa and Kaagaz Ke Phool are amazing. I loved that they just added that in there. 

Anyways. Dulquer Salmaan was a real choice for this movie. I don’t know who decided, “Hey maybe Dulquer would be a great serial killer,” but they were right. This was great. He did great, from being charming to talking to himself like a creepy fool. 

The second half was when the movie felt more connected. The two stories became more obviously related, and the theme was just plastered out there. Criticism must exist ethically. 

This is also when Guru Dutt (and the general idea of cinema) became more and more prominent. There was Kaagaz Ke Phool (both cinematically and literally), rain dances, film reels, Nayakan references, and even a poster that read “Woody Allen is innocent” (which I totally disagree with). Danny even became this angry manifestation of Guru Dutt’s characters from Pyaasa and Kaagaz Ke Phool, and the iconic Jesus Christ shot was everywhere, from the dead bodies to Danny himself in jail. 

I liked the ending of the movie, where they showed Danny’s movie in bits and pieces. His trauma literally made him watch Pyaasa and then go on to become a failed filmmaker. The background music for that just made it even sadder. 

Overall though, this movie touched a lot of things I liked in films: The rain-flower-love story, Guru Dutt, Dulquer Salmaan, Pyaasa, Kaagaz Ke Phool, the background music, the flashback, everything. I found Pooja Bhatt's role useless though. I didn’t mind the gore and that stuff—I only realized it was an A certificate movie on the way to the theatre, so it was too late to do anything about it. (I guess others would have found it a bit too gory, but whatever. I seem to like quite a few A certificate films: Trance, Natchathiram Nagargiradhu, Haseen Dillruba, A Death in the Gunj, Hotel Mumbai, Moondram Pirai, and so on.)

I might consider editing this post if I feel like it, or I might just write another one with more coherence. We’ll see! If you actually read through all that, I applaud you…