The biggest joy of watching cinema is experienced when you get to watch a completely unheard of, lesser-known film and it turns out to be a well-made gem with no known actors on screen you are familiar with.
CHOUSAR FIRANGI is one of those pleasantly surprising smaller-gems, which though has a seen before theme but does get the execution superbly done by writer-director Sandeep Pandey extracting worth appreciating performances from the entire cast including Pratiek Pachori, Rekha Mishra, Anshul Thakur, Divya Kumar, Aashisnagar, Siddharth Yadav and more. In fact its these adorable natural acts by the cast, well-written dialogues and their effortless rendition by all that draw your attention at once and you get involved within the first ten minutes of the film.
Besides, how a director uses songs and background score in his film (that happens to be a comical thriller) always counts and makes the major difference in its overall impact, which can easily be witnessed in CHOUSAR FIRANGI right from its opening credits. To be specific, just notice the way brass-section is used in the BGM and the song in the beginning reminding you of the typical style of R.D. Burman.
Revolving around two boys trying to spend the night with a girl (hired for the same), who is also doing it for the first time, the film is about their experiences during the night, running away from the police and other people looking out for them and the girl in particular. To be fair, this can also be called a much darker, new age version of Sudhir Mishra’s IS RAAT KI SUBAH NAHIN (1996) that is also about all instances happening in a single night. And if you are a fan of that underrated classic of the 90s then you are sure going to love CHOUSAR FIRANGI and its young actors for sure as this too begins from a shuffle, beating a local bhai and has many brilliant smaller insertions in its dialogues, scenes and sub-plots just like Mishra’s film.
For instance the girl preparing for her English exam scheduled next morning and speaking English all through the night perfectly works and entertains superbly. And then we also have many smartly written sequences related with the local politicians and their election campaign’s preparations continuing during the night (don’t miss the lady’s conversation with the graphic designer).
Shot on location, it captures the local essence and lingo keeping the humour quotient intact and at times makes you laugh out loud too, like in the scene when the three get caught by the local policemen in night or when the police takes them to their teacher’s home.
Having said that, though it might not be a limitation for many, but I did feel the film ending on an unexpectedly gloomy and experimental note that didn’t match with its overall light hearted feel. Strongly felt that a more innovative and may be a light, satirical climax was required that would have resulted in a much more impactful and entertaining film.
Nevertheless, that is not anything which should be considered as any strong criticism against the film, because even with its present culmination CHOUSAR FIRANGI is certainly capable of surprising you with quality content beyond your wildest imagination. Honestly, its promotional artworks might not impress, most probably designed in-house within the limited means, but the film does and does it beautifully in its less than 100 minutes duration, created by a fresh team of makers and performers - which no doubt deserves to be applauded and promoted wholeheartedly.
So go for it and yet again realize that a worth-watching film can definitely be made without featuring even a known cast, forget the stars. Sharing my personal experience, CHOUSAR FIRANGI is one of those rare films of the present times, which I loved to watch again, in order to catch its smaller, finer moments that I might have missed in the first watch. And that should say it all conveying a strong recommendation.
Rating : 3.5 + 0.5 / 5 (with the additional 0.5 for all young natural performers, particularly the three in lead.)
(Note : At the time of posting this article, the film could be seen at Amazon Prime for a subscription)
