Chhello Show Review - Pan Nalin's Emotional & Nostalgic Ode To Real Struggle & Passion For Cinema

Pan Nalin's Gujarati film, Chhello Show, has been selected by juries as India's official entry to the Oscars 2023. The juries have preferred Chhello Show over commercial blockbusters and much-talked-about films like The Kashmir Files and RRR. If you are a true cinema lover (like those juries), then I think you will agree with them and hail them for their selection. Chhello Show is an absolute top-class show for those who know and want to know cinema to its core.I remember watching Giuseppe Tornatore's Italian classic Nuovo Cinema Paradiso (1988), and what a film it was. Cinema Paradiso will always remain in my memory books, and why not? That film was just magic, especially for a true movie buff. I won't say Tornatore missed something considering the late 80s filmmaking, because Cinema Paradiso was way ahead of its time. But today, when I look at it as a modern classic and think that there was a scope for something, then I would have loved to change the personal angle of the protagonist from a regular working guy to someone who loves cinema more than anything else in life. But that's life, you know. You have to sacrifice the most loved thing to achieve some mainstream goals, so I will give it a fair excuse. However, Pan Nalin's Chhello Show made my imagination come to the reel life in the best possible way.Chhello Show is about a 9-year-old boy, Samay (Bhavin Rabari), who loves watching movies and wants to be a filmmaker. He belongs to a poor Brahmin family, and his father (Dipen Raval) objects to his passion for cinema. Unaware of the financial crisis his father is in, Samay continues his passion for cinema. He befriends a cinema hall projectionist, Fazal (Bhavesh Shrimali), who shows him films through a projection room in exchange for a daily meal. Samay keeps bunking school and goes to the theatre to watch the films, but his well-set schedule is soon destroyed by advanced technologies. How he follows his passion for cinema, what struggles he has to face and how his dreams are destroyed by the mirror of reality all of it comes as a full package from Chhello Show.Talking about performances, Bhavesh Shrimali's Samay will remain with you for a long time in the future. The boy looks so natural and effortless on screen. He is naughty but also has that innocence. His expressions in those emotionally compelling scenes will win your heart. Bhavesh Shrimali's projectionist is realistic and sticks to the ground. Maybe that's why you love him more. Richa Meena and Dipen Raval as Samay's parents have done a nice job, and the kids' gang, Vikas Bata, Rahul Koli, Shoban Makwa, Kishan Parmar and Vijay Mer are adorable.Many people on the Internet are saying that Chhello Show is a copy of the Italian film, Cinema Paradiso, which is absolutely ridiculous speculation. See the film first, and you will know that just the idea of a boy Loving cinema is the same and the rest of the story is completely different. There is no romance in this film, there is no adulthood, so what seems to be copied here? I won't spoil anything more, but just see it and decide for yourself. Like this, every romantic film that has a hero and heroine in love is a copy of some romantic movie.Pan Nalin has just taken the idea from Giuseppe Tornatore's universal classic and has created a whole different world of cinema of his own. Set in a rural village, the film has a hard-core realistic touch to its screenplay. Every scene was as real as it could get in a feature film. There are plenty of frames that will stay with you forever if you really love quality cinema. Remember Cinema Paradiso showing old Hollywood movie footage? Similarly, Chhello Show has a plethora of Bollywood movie footage for you to enjoy, some of which will astound you. It is not that you haven't seen those scenes before, but you get to see them in a different way. For instance, the boy opens the projection room window and sees Aishwarya Rai's scene from Jodha Akbar on screen. What a lovely piece of framework it was. Swapnil Sonawane's frames would get a 10/10 from Leonardo Da Vinci. What stunning cinematography!The love for cinema is the basic subject, as we know, but how far you can take it is the real challenge. Nalin just didn't take the challenge, but set a landmark for others. An absolute banger of a cinema into a cinema. Cinema Paradiso, Cinema Bandi (2021) and Chhello Show— three films that show you the real passion of cinema and I'd like to watch them on the last day of my life. Nalin's film is an ode to all the great filmmakers and actors who have filled out life with different colours on 35mm. That climax, the bangles, and the names.. Speechless. A pin-drop silence with an ultimate burn. I was remembering films by Georges Méliès, DW Griffith, Fritz Lang, Yasujiro Ozu, Billy Wilder, David Lean, Satyajit Ray, Manmohan Desai, Guru Dutt and many more of those legendary filmmakers mentioned there. Thank you, Mr. Genius Nalin and the entire team of the Chhello Show for the show of a lifetime. The Cinema and we cinema lovers will always owe you a salute for this memorable tribute.