Review: ‘Chitkabrey’ fails to make an impact

Zeenews Bureau

India’s boldest film ever falls flat on its face from the word go. Director Suneet Arora tries to tackle a very serious issue – ragging in colleges, but goes horribly wrong. Touted as one of the boldest film in the recent past, ‘Chitkabrey - Shades of Grey’ could have been a good film. A film on ragging with dark undertones has lot of potential. But unfortunately, lack of a good script fails to make the film remotely watchable. The story is about a fateful night when a group of college friends meet for a reunion of sorts with their respective spouses. None of them are quite sure as to who invited who at the given place. Waiters and attendants appear out of nowhere and the men lose no time in catching up and enjoy the free booze. Then suddenly, all of a sudden, everyone is taken hostage by an unseen person whose voice thunders above their heads through a series of loudspeakers and threatens to spill out each of their dirty secret. Enters Rakesh Chaubey (Ravi Kishan), who was tortured and ragged by the same set of friends during their college years. The once tortured Rakesh is the brain behind the reunion and has called all of them to settle scores. Poor performances by the entire cast make the film almost unbearable. Kishan goes overboard with drama in many of the scenes and one can’t help but cringe at his crazy antics. The film also tries to be preachy in an obvious sort of a way which is not entertaining. The issue of ragging has been dealt with in the past on silver screen, and definitely in a better way. Watch it only if you have nothing else to do this weekend. Ratings: One cheer for this one!