CAST: Yami Gautam, Sunny Kaushal, Sharad Kelkar, Indraneil Sengupta, Barun Chanda
DIRECTOR: AJAY SINGH
A flight attendant falls in love with a businessman who is indebted in crores, so to solve this impeding issue they find themselves in a dangerous diamond robbery case and their similar history of being associated with the underworld leads to further complications with this.
Director Ajay Singh’s ‘ Chor Nikal Ke Bhaaga’ starts off feeling like a predictable love plot with an independent girl not giving in to a guy’s demands and a morally questionable plot of robbery. Soon this heist movie takes a turn into becoming a hijack movie and that’s just the start of the fun- the film takes you on a rollercoaster ride, with unexpected twists keeping you at the edge of your seat throughout. Given the already fast pace and multiple subplots going on- the romance, the background issues of both Ankit (Sunny Kaushal) and Neha (Yami Gautam) you are too engaged to think of any other underlying storylines which come out as the second half of the film picks up.
Even though objectively there is nothing much concrete to the contents of the film, it is as entertaining and engaging as a film could be, an enjoyable two hours that is if you give it the chance and sit through the first couple of scenes- which could be a struggle. The technicalities and production are definitely not up to the mark especially compared to larger hijack movies like AirLift. However, this slack in execution is made up by clever writing and storytelling- imagine the best of Happy New Year and Neerja combined into one film and then a cherry on the top is added with the character arc of Neha taking a big swing turning the plot around. You can’t even expect the unexpected here though it seems predictable once you’ve seen it and might curse yourself for not calling it out before. That’s where this movie does wonders, it enthralls you into all that’s already going which may seem like too much, to begin with, but becomes their greatest strength.
Yami Gautam’s acting though not at par with other actresses in the industry stands out here only to be supported by Sunny who propels this film forward exponentially. The appeal of her character is what most Indian pieces have. She’s independent, strong-headed, and yet empathetic in situations, it makes you fall for her a little bit only to become stronger as the story progresses, and she takes the limelight away by being the only female lead in a male-dominated film. Sunny Kaushal’s scruff physicality fits the role perfectly as he seems to be the upcoming Rajkumar Rao or perhaps Nawazuddin Siddiqui.
The events in the movie are unrealistic (like in most movies) and the events seem to not be occurring naturally as a story but rather as a sequence of events so as to make them a story, almost too easily and the attention to detail is negligible here, unlike the writing, which is crisp, adding to the drama in this cliffhanger. Well, there might not be attention to logical sequences of events and a lack of common sense among the characters but none of it matters as you have not a second to look away – not a glance at your phone. And that’s the magic which makes this film worth watching which leaves you feeling satisfied about the time you spent on it.
