Film Review of Choked: Paisa Bolta Hai

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A bank employee who is struggling to pay the bills finds a secret source of seemingly unlimited cash in her home.  Full Article here:  See more at https://gulfnews.com/videos

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00:00This is Manjusha Radhakrishnan and here is my review of Choked. It stars Sayami Kher and

00:05Roshan Mathew and it's a Hindi movie directed by Anurag Kashyap, Bollywood's maverick director

00:11which dropped on Netflix this weekend. Here's what I thought about the movie.

00:21Choked takes you into the life of Sushant Pillai and Sarita Pillai played by Roshan

00:27Mathew and Sayami Kher who are in a loveless marriage of sorts. I mean life has taken over

00:34and because she's struggling so hard to be the breadwinner of the house, she works in a bank as

00:39a cashier, her life is a drudgery. I mean she's emotionally spent, exhausted, financially she's

00:44always cash strapped so she's a very unhappy woman. So what we have is firstly it introduces

00:50into the lives of these of this young couple who have one son and how they bicker. They bicker

00:56relentlessly about how they don't have enough money to be happy. What is very interesting about

01:02this movie is that Anurag Kashyap does a good job of showing us this domestic bliss is not always

01:08certain. I mean what is certain is that you will be unhappy, the economic dependence on each other

01:14and how you need money for everything is the highlight of this movie. But their lives take a

01:19dramatic optimistic turn when Sarita finds that out of her broken sink and the sewer there comes

01:26wags of cash. She knows it's illegal but suddenly she runs into this illegal money, she covers that

01:32up, she's very deceptive about it, she hides the truth from her husband and then tries to improve

01:38her life. There is a sudden change in her attitude and how her life is transformed. Sayami Kher is

01:46brilliant as this emotionally spent housewife who's very desperate to get a lucky break in life

01:52and her lucky break comes in the form of wags of cash actually being coughed up by the sewer every

01:57night. It's a very intriguing promise and Anurag Kashyap actually does a great job of making it

02:04very wicked and engaging. It's the combined acting of Roshan Mathew and Sayami Kher that makes this

02:11a black comedy and the satire so interesting. I mean Sayami Kher is a revelation in this film,

02:18we have seen her before in a romantic drama but to see her show her acting head so well

02:25in an Anurag Kashyap film is a delight. Of course Roshan Mathew is a Malayalam actor,

02:31we have seen him in Malayalam movies but to see him crack the Hindi Bollywood film mode is also

02:36very interesting. Another part that I love about this film is that Anurag Kashyap, you know that

02:41he's a critic, you know he critiques Narendra Modi's government constantly in his post so he

02:48tries to bring a bit of activism into the movie as well. Choked is filled with spectacular performances

02:54and I would put my money on this one. When the cinemas are closed and there is web streaming

02:58platforms, these are the kind of movies that are really engaging. Good performances, great collective

03:05acting, a good storyline and a good direction that's what makes a movie tick. Choked is a good

03:10example of that. I'm going with three out of five. For our full review go to gulfnews.com

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