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Choked applies to
many things in this film -
a pipe, a marriage, a woman’s voice,
her life, a society, a country.
Anurag Kashyap rolls political critique
into a suspense drama
about a middle-class woman who discovers that
a pipe in her kitchen is spewing cash.
It’s exactly the miracle
her cash-strapped family needs,
but then Prime Minister Modi 
announces demonetization
and everything goes haywire.
Choked is about the intersection
of the personal and the political.
Where the film and its makers stand
on the PM and on demonetization
is made clear from the start.
In an early scene, Sushant and Sarita,
a once-loving couple,
whose marriage is souring
in front of our eyes,
are watching television.
We don’t see what they are seeing, but we can hear
someone extolling the virtues of eating mushrooms,
because THAT is the secret of the
PM’s vitality and good health.
The anchor says:
Mushroom khaao, Modi ban jaao.
With a few lines, Anurag
and his writer Nihit Bhave,
establish the PM’s cult of personality and his
appeal to his core audience – the middle class.
So Sushant,
like other residents in the building,
believes that demonetization will cleanse
the country of black money.
But, Sarita has no time to
consider these possibilities,
because she’s an exhausted
and harassed bank employee.
Post-demonetization, the bank is overrun
by people trying to exchange notes.
When an elderly lady begs Sarita to give her more
money, she replies with a blank expression:
"Bank mein paise milte hain,
sympathy nahi milti."
Unke haath jodiye jinko vote diya tha.
It’s a precise skewering
of the current government.
The film renders effectively
the oppressive routine
and the ordinariness of
Sushant and Sarita’s lives.
He’s a musician who is too
lazy to hold down a job,
but that doesn’t stop him from
demanding better service
from his hardworking wife,
who supports them both.
When he says to her:
"Hafte mein teesri baar aloo khila rahi ho",
you want to lean into that frame,
and slap him.
She robotically works, cooks, cleans
and remembers with remorse, a more
glamorous life that she left behind.
She was once a leading contestant
on a reality show.
Those scenes, colorful and brightly lit, are
in stark contrast to her drab existence now.
Sarita is a woman haunted by failure.
Her dreams are so contained,
that even when she has wads of cash,
she doesn’t rush out to buy
clothes or jewelry.
Instead, she splurges on household items
like curtains and cushion covers.
Choked is strongest when Anurag is
dealing with emotions and relationships,
like the fraying bond between
husband and wife;
their connections with the neighbors
who are their support system,
but are also noisy,
gossipy and hypocritical.
Amruta Subhash is exactly right
as Sharvari Tai,
who somehow manages to be both
compassionate and opportunistic.
DOP Sylvester Fonseca’s roving camera
establishes the limited spaces
that the drama unravels in –
we mostly move between
the building and the bank.
There is that typically Mumbai
sense of claustrophobia –
so when Sushant and Sarita fight, they must
do it with their son sleeping between them.
But the suspense in the film
is not as sharply written.
The idea of pipes throwing up
cash is instantly intriguing.
Choked begins with
a delectable title sequence
in which money is unpacked
and repacked for storage,
but the film doesn’t deliver
on the promise of this.
The weakest link is a goon
who complicates the plot further
and the climactic action,
which just feels forced,
almost as if Anurag and Nihit were
just in a hurry to wrap things up.
There are several sequences in which
Karsh Kale’s jaunty background score
is drumming up an urgency that
the screenplay just doesn’t have.
Essentially, Choked is
Anurag in minor key.
There are sporadic moments of flashiness,
but mostly the storytelling, like Sarita, is subdued.
There's little of that raw, visceral energy
that we connect with this filmmaker.
But as usual, he elicits solid performances 
from his actors.
Saiyami Kher captures every nuance
of the beleaguered Sarita.
She’s terrific in a scene in which
Sarita finally breaks down.
Roshan Mathew – you might remember
his wonderful performance in Moothon –
has less to play with, but he enables us
to see the vulnerability and weakness
under Sushant’s belligerence.
The tagline of the film is
'Paisa bolta hai'.
But, what does money say?
It’s telling that Sarita has to step into
this dirty black water
to get those wads of cash.
This is literally black money,
and no good ever comes
of hoarding that.
Now, to tell you a bit more
about MUBI -
it’s a film streaming service that premieres
a new film every day on each channel.
Showcasing the best of Indian cinema
on their MUBI INDIA channel
and classic international hits
on MUBI WORLD.
This week, I recommend that you check out
Gaman by Muzaffar Ali.
It’s streaming now on MUBI India.
