Chakki Review - A Common Man's Strife Against The Never-Ending Grinder of The Corrupt System

Rahul Bhat and Priya Bapat star in Satish Munda's uniquely titled social drama, Chakki. The film brings to light the same old subject that we have seen in a few films before- corruption. But the field and department it chooses is a sort of new one, except for Shahid Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor and Yami Gautam starrer Batti Gul Meter Chalu (2018). Most of the story in that film takes place in the courtroom, whereas Chakki is more like an outside courtroom with only a few scenes in the court, which are totally different from that courtroom drama. We have had social dramas made on corruption, be it politicians, civil officers, police, ministers, and what not, so logically, there is nothing new in Chakki, except that it uses a topic of Chakki (Flour Mill) and drives its title indirectly to the grinder-pattern system of ours.Chakki has a middle-class protagonist called, Vijay (Rahul Bhat), who runs a flour mill in a small town. While checking financial profits every day, he gains the love of his life, Reema (Priya Bapat), and plans to marry her. Everything in his seemingly happy life turns upside down when he receives a hefty bill of 1.50 lakh for his flour mill. Running around in circles to get his bill corrected, Vijay falls into a literal endless loop (chakki) of the quintessential government inefficiency. Completely unsympathetic and parasitic officials trying to squeeze him for any kind of money, inept bureaucracy and systematic apathy lead him to take a desperate but illegal step, which ultimately lands him in even bigger legal trouble, jeopardising his family's status and upcoming wedding. How Vijay battles against it with his common man's trick is all that you get to see in Chakki.Satish Munda and Ashvin Verma have written a good script that can be related to by any common man. We do face such issues in daily life wherever we go. From electricity bills to gas bills, property taxes, education, jobs, and police complaints, we have corruption everywhere. I know that writing this line is too easy for me, but the one who has to go through it knows how tough that path is. It's a never-ending circle that keeps you running from one place to another and then to another tirelessly. In between, you don't get the time to earn your daily bread. See how complicated it is. You fight corruption to earn honest money, and when you get to do that, you don't get time to earn that money. Chakki grinds all these hectic events well, but the screenplay is somewhat dragged.Talking about performances, Chakki is all about Rahul Bhat's dedicated act. The last time I saw him was in Section 375 (2019), and what a beautiful performance he gave there. He continues the same form here too. He has got so many nice scenes, and how passionately he performs there. His frustration, voice tone, and expressions speak so much. Priya Bapat looks gorgeous as his girlfriend, and she also has a couple of scenes to show her acting talent. There is a big supporting cast, including Tirth Sharma, Simran Natekar, Alka Amin, Anirudh Khatwad, Neha Bam, Durgesh Kumar, Amit Dudi, Pradeep Nema, Bhupesh Singh, Aseem Dubey and Mushtaq Khan, amongst others, and they have done a decent job in small roles.Chakki packs a solid punch of social drama, but it goes wrong with the cultivation of human drama. It's not a long film, with a runtime of about 96 minutes, yet it feels a little boring in the first half. The first 20 minutes cause major problems, but once it gets started before the interval point, it doesn't stop. There was less scope for music, so let's not blame the average songs here. I would like to ask the dialogue writer about his mediocre vision. Why didn't he go for some hardcore one-liners that would have suited the real outburst of a common man? Also, the cinematography isn't that great. Satish Munda has surprised me, to be frank. He is an FTII pass out, so he knows what cinema is, and what he has done with a low budget is really commendable. However, we also know that filmmaking is not just about budget. The vision, crafting, and storytelling of the director can do wonders. Chakki misses out on that front. Anyway, it's a decent entertainer with a good story, but it could have been a notch higher.