By Arijit Paul
Anurag Kashyap, the “angry young man” of Hindi cinema, whose creative genius envisioned works like “Gangs of Wasseypur“, “Dev D” and “Ugly” has always made films that are a warcry- a rebel with a cause to detract from the joie de vivre of Bollywood. Each of his films are decked upon another, a tryst with a dark caricature of the subaltern milieu, anchored at the helm by contemporary politics and violence. In an interview, Kashyap describes his latest endeavour “Choked: Paisa Bolta Hai” as a Sai Paranjpye thriller. Descriptions and definitions apart, it is starkly liberating from the Kashyap-esque tradition of filmmaking in terms of its storytelling and critique. As is his wont to stand ground against the establishment, Kashyap barters the nuances of a refined story for a more didactically inclined narrative.
The opening shot is of a man walking briskly up a staircase with an attache case, while we hear a noirish tune in the background. The man rolls and stuffs bundles of notes down his drainpipe (‘choking' it on the way) when the scene transits to a revolving disco ball quickly changing back to grisly leaking waters on a floor. The semantics are all over the place, making class distinction the identity— smothering the working-class orifices with grimy waters. Fast forward to a lower-middle-class Marathi family- Sarita (a barely touching-the-mark acting by Saiyami Kher) is a bank clerk and the sole earning member of the family. Her husband, Sushant (another soft, underwhelming performance) is a ne'er-do-well man who fails at everything he tries his hands upon. So instead, he sits back and whiles his time around playing carrom and hanging out with his friends. But, as all heroes require a villain, Sarita finds hers too- underneath her kitchen sink when she discovers that the leaky waters push bundles of notes along with it. Of course, things go for a spin awhile before it comes to a halt. There is a nationwide television broadcast of the Prime Minister announcing the demonetization of the present currency. Sarita's world crashes down upon her feet, so does of all those hard-earned people who now have to spend hours waiting in the queue for a paltry exchange of new currencies. The incalculable affair begins where people are winded by a system that doesn't even bother to look below its eyes, let alone looking down to the end of the line.
Surprisingly, what looks until now like a concrete set-up to bring forth the perils of the proletariat as a consequence of radical decisions by the incumbent government, begins to choke on its hyperventilating ambitions. It runs afoul of its potential with an oblique plot and obtrusive characterization. There are other half-baked angles as well- a moneylender on her trail, spying neighbors who do not add to the greater half, neither are they funny.
However, not everything is lost in the film. If Kashyap's last angry film “Mukkabaaz” was a gut-wrenching uppercut to the hypocrisies and blight of a caste-ridden society, “Choked “is Kashyap's contemplative and thoughtful voice that demarcates and disassociates the black from the white, the high from the low, the sewage from the roof, and all the hollows between them. Contemporary cinema cannot attempt to shy away from the political and economic discourse and it would be naive to comprehend any sincere work outside these spheres. One of the most celebrated films of recent times, Bong Joon-ho's “Parasite” is a glaring testament to that. Nevertheless, in an attempt to examine the crevices through a cross-section, “Choked” at most parts feels more obligated to answer questions asked on Twitter rather than actualize the opportunity to plunge deeper into the labyrinth of discourse.
The film has been penned by Nihit Bhave and Kashyap by his own admission is in the phase of experimenting with collaborations. Perhaps, that makes for a plausible explanation of a seemingly proportionate concept losing its intent down the line. The metaphors and symbols wound themselves tightly around the narrative and characters, as we witness glimpses from Sarita's past where she choked during a performance, or in a conversation with the next-door-neighbor (an outstanding performance by Amruta Subhash amidst a bunch of average ones) where she quietly reveals how she renounced her ambitions to make way for her husband. It is in nature a deeply conscious attempt that examines how patriarchy in the middle-class society wrings and chokes a woman's hopes, aspirations and dreams.
Unlike his recent works, which all had more easily accessible models, the prima-facie distress here ideates back to his pre-“Raman Raghav 2.0” days. It illuminates the broken shards of a shoddy system and its wretched hegemony, lacquered with fake news and WhatsApp conspiracies. The closer we approach to entangle it, the more destructive the consequences appear for us when we are either shunned, by the system, society or, in extreme cases, by our closest accords. Ambitious as it may have been, “Choked” reflects with a sly response to the steadily growing authoritarian ideology that actively engages in aggravating the political climate of the country. In that sense, Kashyap's longstanding discord with the authorities overflows into the film, stemming from his choked desire to retaliate. However, during the process it undermines the film's proto narrative and gives way for a more flawed perspective on issues that require urgent readdress, leaving us all with expecting better from an auteur of Kashyap's oeuvre.
