Chaalis Chauraasi - Movie Review | Naseeruddin Shah | Kay Kay Menon | Atul Kulkarni

The ApunKaChoice movie review of Chaalis Chauraasi. Here’s a classic example of a talented cast saving a sloppy script by their sheer brilliance. Director Hriday Shetty may not have done his home work of cobbling together a riveting screenplay, but he was sensible and sly enough to rope in some of the best actors for his heist-gone-wrong film Chaalis Chauraasi.

The presence of Naseeruddin Shah, Kay Kay Menon, Atul Kulkarni and Ravi Kishan in a film is enough to guarantee you paisa vasool entertainment. That Chaalis Chauraasi does manage to provide. How?

Four men team up to rob Rs. 20 crore. Bobby (Atul Kulkarni) is a bar singer. Shakti (Ravi Kishan) is a drug peddler. Albert (Kay Kay Menon) is a car thief. And Pankaj (Naseeruddin Shah) is a former English professor. Having fallen on hard times, the foursome decide to pull off a robbery in the guise of police. But can they think like cops? And will other people take them seriously as cops? Worst, what if they come across real cops?

The premise is really interesting and there are funny twists and twirls in the plot. But director Hriday Shetty spends a lot of footage in providing the back stories of the four characters.

The funniest one is that of Kay Kay Menon as a car thief who steals and destroys the Fiat cars in Mumbai because he wants to be the only owner of a Fiat.

The performances are top notch: be it Naseeruddin Shah as a bumbling cop, Ravi Kishan as a crass peddler, Atul Kulkarni as a crooner or Kay Kay Menon as a car kleptomaniac.

The proceedings turn into a mess at the fag end, but kudos to the four actors for standing above a slipshod script to save the day for Chaalis Chauraasi.

Rating: 2.5 stars out of 5