Chhichhore: A Movie To Cherish For Good-Old-Time’s Sake

If you ever felt reminiscent of your college days, and if your hostel life is truly worth cherishing, then Chhichhore will make you relive the good old days. It will take you down a lane of memories filled with pleasant years of friendship and trust.  It will make sure you leave the cinema hall with a smile on your face. 

The film, a comical drama, is set in 1992 to the present time. It brings to life the nostalgic past days of studying at a college and living in a hostel. With this, it becomes one of the evergreen films which is transitioning magically like Jo Jeet Wohi Sikander, humouredly like 3 Idiots, and competitive like Student of the Year. 

Chhichhore talks about many rising issues faced by the Millenials like suicide, aspects of family dramas and failures that may vary from not clearing an examination, to being tagged a loser at a championship. The story is narrated as a part of Anni’s (short for Anirudh) life, who studied at the National Institute of Technology and is now a father to Raghav (played by Mohammad Samad). Raghav is a young individual who aspires to graduate from one of the known engineering colleges, just like his father. 

When Raghav fails to clear the advanced stage of the examination, he decides to take his life. Narrating his college story to his son, he tries to develop a sense of acceptance to failures and to prepare for the worst while we plan to celebrate the victory, as he fights for his life. 

Director Nitesh Tiwari centrally focuses on the character development of its main canvas, full of brilliant actors like Sushant Singh Rajput, who plays Anni and perfectly merges into the situation of similar characters at every college. These characters include Sexa (Varun Sharma), Mummy (Tushar Pandey), Acid (Naveen Polishetty), Derek (Tahir Raj Bhasin), and Bewda (Saharsh Kumar Shukla). The only female lead, which is the love interest of Anni, Maya (Shraddha Kapoor) might make the film a little sexist, however, it is covered into realm due to its thematic relevance and central drama based on the group of six young boys. 

Their acting skills are top-notch as the intensity of the emotions expressed sends an eccentric wave of tears to its viewers. At one point, predictability increases and the pace continuously slows down. However, the perfectly written one-liners captivate and act smoothly to move the film into the story of not heroes, but normal people. The journey of personal growth is heightened and though, deals with intensely strong, gloomy concepts, it is a light film, conclusively aiming at its core message. 

The frameshifting that occurs between gaps of time loops must be appreciated, while music for the film by Pritam is adequately impressive. Wholesomely, Chhichhore reminds you of the memories you make and focuses on the worthiness of life experiences, over excellence and grades scored. 

Chakshu Garg, an engineering student at Amity University expressed, “I have seen the film 3 times already and each time I love it even more! I have never related to any college film more. It’s a must-watch!” 

Last but not least, Chhichhore is an experience of happiness and influences one to have a strong bond with people they are close with and to be hopeful for their lives and future. As of October 6th, the film marked the eighth highest-grossing film of 2019.  The film is truly glorious, the one that showcases the beauty of strong friendships and hopes over failure.