Review: Chaar Lugaai: Long distance marriage and infidelity!
70% India leaves in villages. As the job opportunities are meagre in small places, majority of male population from villages and small towns head to big cities in search of jobs so that they can support their families financially. Economically this move does pay off but what about the psychological repercussions. The men working in bigger cities, though earning well, can not visit their villages and families for months, sometimes years. Parents of those men understand their predicament it but quite a few married women doesn’t. They long to be in the arms of their husbands, especially at nights. They feel that they are brought into this house to only look after children and in-laws. It’s a ‘catch 22’ situation for both, men and women. To highlight these dilemma director Prakash Saini has brought realistic film Chaat Lugaai.
He brings forth this problem with the help of crime, comedy, and drama. Moreover he has laced it with emotional outbursts.
Chaar Lugaai, as the name suggests is a story of four married women staying in a village whose husbands have gone to Mumbai for earning. All of them are young and long for physical intimacy from their husbands. But men can not come to village and to douse bodyly fire they indulge in infidelity. Usha (Nidhi Uttam), Rashmi (Mansi Jain), Meenu (Deepti Gautam) and Ranju (Kamal Sharma) are friends and partners in the ‘crime’. Usha is having a clandestine affair with a local wrestler Duggu (Abhinav Seeshore) and her friend cum sister in law Ranju helps her, though she is not interested in a physical relationship with anyone other than her husband. Somehow Rashmi comes to know about it and alongwith Meenu convinces Usha that they too want to ‘taste the pie’. Usha arranges a night out to satisfy
carnal longings of her friends through Duggu. But Duggu dies accidentally and these four are in quandary. Now what happens next and in between is the crux of the story.
The story idea is ‘bold’ but the director has refrained from titilation. The one line is good but it doesn’t translate well on screen. The direction should have been more imaginative and the screenplay should have been crisper. Though the last twist is interesting. The film had the potential to become a good crime thriller drama but it floats midway. The message thrown is unbiased, thiugh. Music is good and so is the background. But the production values being not rich, the outcome suffers.
Chaar Lugaai scores in acting department. Nidhi Uttam has done a very good job with convincing performance. She looks good, fits the part to the tee and justifies her role positively. Mansi Jain looks attractive too and has delivered a punching performance and her comic timing too comes out well on screen. Brajesh Kala, as a local doctor who is besotted by Rashmi, does justice to the role. Sanand Anand as a police officer dishes out a stylish and decent performance. Deepti Gautam and Kamal Sharma lend good support.
Chaar Lugaai deals with a realistic subject and presents it in a lighter vein and is a decently entertaing film.
***
Keerti Kadam.