Fine, you are not going to get a dacoit drama like Sholay or Mera Gaon Mera Desh in today's times but Sonchiriya largely set against the backdrop of Chambal ravines, is fine as long you don't mind that your adrenalin doesn't flow and you are okay with Bundelkhandi language that you don't understand fully (thank God for the sub-titles). So Abhishek Chaubey's direction gets trapped in the Valley- you know what I mean. Fine, you are not going to get the feet-tapping tunes of Sholay and Mera Gaon Mera Desh in today's times but Sonchiriya is fine as long as your a rare species to understand Varun Grover's lyrics (thank God again for the sub-titles). So, Vishal Bhardwaj's enchanting tunes remain in the jungles- you know what I mean.
So yeah, Bhardwaj's student Chaubey gets as real as possible with all the MCs and BCs in his tale of Sushant Singh who is a softie at heart, Manoj Bajpayee who leads the gang, Ranvir Shorey (back from almost wilderness) who is a hardcore outlaw, Ashutosh Rana who is a top cop and Bhumi Pednekar who joins the ensemble with a horrid past rather circumstantially.
Sushant Singh Rajput In Sonchiriya
Chaubey lives up to his Udta Punjab record---but partially. Yours truly strongly feels that he would have got it better if he had layered it with few slices of commercial elements. The film tends to get a tad repititive and slow with similar and long encounters in the Valley.
Bhumi Pednekar In Sonchiriya
Sushant Is sincere and kudos to him for taking up something so off-the-cuff so early in his career. Ditto for Miss Pednekar. Bajpayee is as good as always. Ranvir Shorey throws his heart and soul into his character. The hard cop Ashutosh is not far behind and in fact, often puts his nose in front of his colleagues, err, rivals.
Ashutosh Rana In Sonchiriya
One question, Chaubey. Why did you credit Bajpayee as 'Special Appearance'? Pednekar's role isn't bigger than Bajpayee's, unless you clocked both with a stopwatch.
I am going with TWO-and-HALF.
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