If you’re a Deepak Dobriyal fan, you might want to skip Chor Chor Super Chor. It’s too much to take, watching him light up the screen every chance he gets and yet be reduced to mouthing lyrics like “Gaali dete hoton ko main pappi deke jod doon”. A song sequence, by the way, in which he and his friends literally abduct his crush and push her around on a moving bus. In Delhi. At night. Sometimes you have to wonder whether our filmmakers actually think about what they’re putting on screen.
Even those familiar with the post-interval self-destructiveness of our films will be surprised by the nosedive this one takes. Some crisp direction by first-timer Rajesh K sees Chor Chor Super Chor through to the interval without any major dents to its pride. Satbir (Dobriyal) is part of a gang of conmen, but wants to go straight. He meets a nice girl, gets a job dressing up as giant samosa, the usual. But once he and his former associates are exposed, he has to undo the damage by pretending – and here’s where the film loses the plot – that the cons they pulled were all a big joke.
Whether the screenwriters ran out of ideas or decided that they didn’t want to do a movie full of little cons is up for debate. Whatever the reason, by the time the film starts to skewer – or mildly poke – reality TV, it’s all over. Yet, there’s enough in that enjoyable first half to suggest that Rajesh and his crew, especially cinematographer Rakesh Haridas, have a smarter caper movie in them. As for Dobriyal, he’s the Nawazuddin who never got a break. Someone give him a proper role in a good movie.
This review appeared in Time Out.
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