homeentertainment NewsChhatriwali movie review: A call to make sex education compulsory, use of condoms mandatory

Chhatriwali movie review: A call to make sex education compulsory, use of condoms mandatory

Directed by Tejas Prabha Vijay Deoskar, the film Chhatriwali features Rakul Preet Singh, Sumeet Vyas, Satish Kaushik, Rajesh Tailang, Prachee Shah Pandya, and Dolly Ahluwalia. It is available for streaming at Zee5.

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By Sneha Bengani  Jan 20, 2023 3:12:41 PM IST (Published)

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Chhatriwali movie review: A call to make sex education compulsory, use of condoms mandatory
Set in present-day Karnal, Chhatriwali aims to break the silence and dissipate the awkwardness around sex education and safe sex practices in a country where the burden of contraception, much like most else, is for the women to bear.

Men, especially in non-metro India, are skittish around the subject, unwilling to wear condoms because it spoils their idea of “fun.” Condoms are for lovers, not married couples, one of the film’s principal characters reasons at some point. In the same scene, he says, what’s the point of an umbrella if you want to get wet in the rain? Yea, I rolled my eyes too.
When men don’t do what they are supposed to, women are forced to resort to ways that could be severely detrimental to their wellbeing or even prove fatal—cemergency contraceptive pills, miscarriages, and abortions, all of which take a great toll on a woman’s health — physical, mental, and emotional. But who cares?
Chhatriwali is a quintessential Ayushmann Khurrana film. The only difference is it casts Rakul Preet Singh instead of him. She plays Sanya Dhingra, a bright, spunky Chemistry graduate struggling to find a job in the sleepy Haryana town. So she takes home tuitions for school students to make ends meet as a fatherless woman whose mother passes time gambling away their modest household items and whose younger sister needs funds to study further.
Somewhere along the way, she meets Mr Lamba, the owner of a condom manufacturing company (Satish Kaushik) desperately looking for a qualified professional to head its quality control department, and Rishi (Sumeet Vyas), the charming younger son of a “respected” family with a thriving business of Hindu religious paraphernalia. She ends up working with Mr Lamba and getting married to Rishi. And so the story unfolds.
Rakul Preet Singh is not bad as Sanya but her feistiness is too in-your-face. For instance, it is she, and not the groom, who brings the baraat on their wedding night. More than once, she is called the Indra Nooyi of the family. Also, unlike all the other characters, she doesn’t quite fit in the milieu the film is set in. She looks like a model straight out of a glossy fashion magazine; she talks like one too, with not one strand of hair out of place at any point in the film. I missed Bhumi Pednekar’s earthiness, her becoming one with her characters and surroundings so completely, that you forget it’s an act.
Apart from its messaging, which is both urgent and important, Sumeet Vyas is unarguably the best thing about Chhatriwali. As the conflicted man torn between learning and unlearning, a stubbornly orthodox elder brother and a single-minded defiant wife, he gives a restrained, nuanced performance. He’s the most effortless, the most watchable of them all. We need more of his brand of heroes on screen — supportive, sensitive, simple, secure.
The film’s supporting cast is in great form too. Rajesh Tailang as the obtrusive patriarch and Rishi’s elder brother Bhaiji is impressive but for the dramatic climax, the only time when it feels like he’s acting. Satish Kaushik essentially plays Annu Kapoor’s character from Vicky Donor (2012), trying to demystify an uncomfortable issue. Prachee Shah Pandya as Bhaiji’s long-suffering wife will remind you of countless faceless, voiceless bhabhis that live in domestic obscurity, marginalized within their own family.
Chhatriwali starts awkwardly. Ignoring Satish Kaushik’s awful wig or the clumsy use of VFX (especially the kite flying scene), or forced dialogues (Manja hai ya IIT ka entrance—crack hi nahi ho raha), will not be easy. But director Tejas Prabha Vijay Deoskar finds his voice and his cause soon enough and sticks to it for the rest of the film. Chhatriwali gets better as it progresses and as the conflict intensifies.
The film tries to include as many perspectives as it can to give the audience a comprehensive view of the problem and how it can impact lives. So it uses various relational dynamics — parents and children, husbands and wives, teachers and students — to talk about the need for sex education early in life and the use of condoms.
Should you watch Chhatriwali? Why not. Also make anyone who has questions about contraception, sex education, or who doesn’t use condoms watch it too. For we all know such people. There are far too many of them. Of course, Chhatriwali is not a crash course on sexual awareness but it’s a decent starting point.

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