Sonchiriya Movie Review: Dull And Dreary

After making an impact with his last few releases like Ishqiya, Dedh Ishqiya and Udta Punjab, director Abhishek Chaubey is now back with Sonchiriya, a period drama from the hinterlands of India.

The film is set during the Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi and tells the story of the dreaded dacoits of the Chambal valley. The dacoit gangs too have been formed according to their castes and the  government is asking the rebels to surrender.

Man Singh (Manoj Bajpayee) is the leader of a Rajput gang and Vakil Singh (Ranvir Shorey) and Lakhan Singh (Sushant Singh Rajput) are his close aides. While Vakil Singh wants to protect his dharma by becoming a bandit, Lakhan has already got tired of his life in the ravines and is thinking of starting afresh.

Their life changes completely when they meet Indumati, who is accompanied by a little girl, who has been raped. Indumati’s only aim is to take the girl to the hospital and what happens after her arrival forms the rest of the plot.

Manoj Bajpayee has a special appearance and he is given a smashing performance as always. Sushant is impressive as  Lakhan Singh and it’s good to see him trying such diverse roles. Ranvir Shorey is at the top his game and is convincing as Vakil Singh.

Bhumi Pednekar is fantastic as Indumati and she needs to be applauded for her performance. Ashutosh Rana is superb as ruthless cop Gujjar and his performance is admirable. The rest of the supporting cast too is stupendous, This film fares extremely well in the acting department and everyone is very convincing in their respective roles. Be it their body language or the accent, they have got everything right.

The story is unidimensional but many startling things get unravelled in between. Sonchiriya is a very depressing and dull movie and there is not an ounce of entertainment in it. Pan Singh Tomar too belonged to the same genre but that movie was fun. While watching this film, all I could do was wait for it to end.

The film has been shot very realistically and the milieu is perfect. It looks so authentic that you feel like taking a bath after watching the dust-laden characters. Some scenes are brilliant and they make a solid impact. There’s one scene, where a female dacoit Phooliya (inspired by Phoolan Devi) tells Indumati that women are a different caste altogether and that they are below every other caste. This statement remains with you

The film shows how women were ill-treated back then, not that much has changed now. Sonchiriya becomes very melodramatic at times and it is also very stretched. It should have been cut short by at least half an hour Cinematically this film is brilliant, as the camera work is outstanding and the cinematography is out of this world. However aam janta usually goes to watch a film to get their dose of entertainment and this dreary tale disappoints in that department. Watch this film only if you enjoy watching performance oriented movies.