Netflix’s first Indian original film ‘Chopsticks’ is directed by Sachin Yardi, who’s known to have directed films like ‘C Kkompany’ and ‘Traffic Signal’.
Directed by – Sachin Yardi
Produced by – Ashvini Yardi
Starring – Mithila Palkar, Abhay Deol, Vijay Raaz, Achint Kaur
Plot
Chopsticks is a coming-of-age movie, where Nirma (Mithila Palkar) is shown as an under-confident, superstitious girl in the beginning, who in a matter of fact way questions the showroom manager if the number plate of her brand new car adds up to 11digits. Anyhow, to show gratefulness for her new car, Nirma straightaway heads to Mahalaxmi Mandir. And handovers the car keys to a park and pay guy. Deeply saddened and intimidated with the theft of her car, she sets off on a journey to search for her car and that’s when she encounters the ‘Artist’ (Abhay Deol).
Analysis
The trailer of the film almost convinced us of its ‘eccentricity’. However, the reactions were pretty opposite after watching the film. The three main leads of the film Nirma, Artist and Faiyaaz Bhai (Vijay Raaz) are all connected with a car. Sounds offbeat enough but the film fails to create the kind of magic the audience expected from it.
Nirma Sahastrabudhe, a Mandarin translator who listens to self-help audio books as confidence boosters, grows psychologically in the quest to find her brand new Hyundai. Here Mithila Palkar definitely deserves to be praised for learning Mandarin which is a challenging language to get hands on. Artist, whom she approaches to recover her car after a failed attempt with the police, lives in a half-constructed building. But he has a fully-furnished kitchen as he is a cook, while moonlighting as a smart thief who can unlock a safe just by reading the manual. However, as the film progresses he becomes a life coach to Nirma. The film tries really hard to build on this narrative, but it mostly remains bland for the audience to remember it.
While they wander in the congested bylanes of Mumbai, will Nirma see her car ever again? Watch the movie to get an answer to this question. All in all, ‘Chopsticks’ indeed scrambles to combine contemporary elements such as loneliness, social anxiety, romance, humour etc. to stand out and target a different kind of audience. Though there are unexpected intense scenes on this journey, in the end, it comes across as a lacklustre attempt, as it lags behind in the most crucial aspect, i.e. the script.
