Rajma Chawa review: Leena Yadav’s most recent feature film will have you laughing and crying throughout the story of a father’s desperate struggle to communicate with his son.
Forced to move from his family home to the hectic streets of Old Delhi after his mother’s death, Kabir (Anirudh Tanwar) is an introvert and grieving adolescent. Encouraged by his friends, who claim that “youth today talk with their fingers not their mouths”, his father Raj (Rishi Kapoor) joins Facebook in an attempt to form some sort of conversation with his estranged son. After being rejected even on this medium, he does the unthinkable. He steals an inactive account and poses as a pretty young girl named Tara.
Surely enough, Kabir accepts Tara’s friend request and the more he falls for his new love interest, the closer Raj and Kabir become. Things however take an unexpected and twisted turn, when Kabir and Tara, or Seher (Amyra Dastur) as she is really called, accidentally meet in real life.
Although filmed predominantly in the bustling and chaotic streets of Old Delhi, also known as Chandni Chowk, the message of the story is so universal it could be transported into any thriving metropolis or sleepy village. It shows not only the lengths that parents go to to understand, protect and even control their children, but also the struggles that we all endure due to our inability to properly communicate with one another.
What makes the film so relatable is, as director Leena Yadav herself said at the film’s London Film Festival world premiere, that it does not try to make any big statements. Anyone can find aspects of their life in it. Its main aim is to make the audience laugh and cry with the characters.
In his feature film debut, Anirudh Tanwar takes on the character of Kabir extremely naturally and his on-screen chemistry with Amyra Dastur is not only believable but also gripping and consuming. That being said, it is the emotional connection between Kabir and Raj that stays with the viewers once the cinema lights turn back on. Rarely does a film look at a father-son relationship in such a delightful and heartfelt way and Kapoor and Tanwar are experts in portraying it.
After acclaimed international success with Parched, Yadav is back with a film that is just as colourful and hectic as the narrow alleyways of Chandni Chowk. Rajma Chawal is an exhilaratingly fun watch that tickles all the right comedic strings, but let’s not forget, pulls on your heartstrings as well.
Rajma Chawal review by Tina Baraga, October 2018.
Rajma Chawal was reviewed at the 2018 BFI London Film Festival and will be released on Netflix on 30 November.
