Chhorii is an official remake of the Marathi horror film Lapachhapi directed by Vishal Furia, which was a sleeper hit of Marathi cinema in 2017. Remaking the film in Hindi, Vishal mostly sticks to the original but also adds some unwanted sequences, giving it a filmy touch. Plus, the Hindi version turns out to be a much more polished and technically rich film in terms of sound and presentation, which ironically hampers its overall impact instead of enhancing it.
Strongly making you recall Roman Polanski’s classic Rosemary’s Baby, Chhorii revolves around a pregnant urban lady, who travels to a remote village with her husband to live a few days away from the chaotic city life. In the days spent in a lonely house in the middle of tall grass/sugarcane fields, the lady has to save her unborn child from some evil, supernatural elements and in the struggle gets to know a scary, inhuman secret related to herself.
Chhorii majorly works as it presents a fresh location-based narrative, different from the routine setting of an Indian horror film. So, here you neither get to see some huge ancient mansions nor colonial buildings or the church/cross-related exorcism repeated in our numerous movies. The eye-catching rural backdrop, the large and tall sugarcane plantation, the lonely, scary environment, and the story mostly unfolding in the daytime instead of night, surely works in the film's favour. As a result, it largely remains engaging and watchable as something fresh, even when the forced beginning and the message-oriented climax pulls it back to the routine.
Playing the pregnant lady, Nusrat delivers an okay performance as an attempt to break her set image, but Meeta Vashisht never seems to be natural because of an artificial dialect, overdoing her act. On the other hand, the male actors strictly remain average, whereas the kids take care of the horror element with many effective jump-scares coming at regular intervals.
That said, Chhorii still falls short of its original Lapachhapi by the same director in terms of performances and presentation missing the raw and earthy touch. The Marathi film has Usha Naik superbly playing the old woman and much more convincing Pooja Sawant in the lead. It has a more focused screenplay straight away coming to the point and has a rustic, rural feel, making it appear more authentic and believable.
In its Hindi version, the makers have gone into exaggerations in the sound and art department, in particular, resulting in a more polished and stylized film missing its essence. Indicating towards an important lesson of filmmaking, the simple and raw Lapachhappi reaches out to the viewer in a far better manner than the technically and visually rich Chhorii.
Still, it thankfully offers something new to watch in the horror genre and hence deserves to be given a fair chance. Interestingly, the film talks about the cunning ritual of killing the girl child in the rural (as well as urban) regions of the country, when the new national census says that there are more women per 1000 men in India. That is how the timing of a film’s release is so crucial, adding to its overall impact.
On a concluding note, you can surely watch Chhorii for something novel tried in the genre of Hindi horror films. But if you wish to see the better among the two, then go for Lapachhapi, also available online with English Subtitles.
Rating:
Chhori – 2.5 /
Lapachhapi – 3.5 / 5
(Note : Chhori available at Amazon Prime and Lapachhapi at Zee5 with English subtitles)
