‘Sonchiriya’ Movie Review: A gripping tale of guns, guts and survival that doesn’t try to be commercial

Directed by: Abhishek Chaubey

Produced by: Ronnie Screwvala

Cast: Sushant Singh Rajput, Manoj Bajpayee, Ashutosh Rana, Ranvir Shorey, Bhumi Pednekar

Duration: 2 hour 26 minutes

Rating: 3.5/5

In the first scene of ‘Sonchiriya’, you see a close-up of flies feasting on a dead snake – an inauspicious sight if you ask the bandits. So very early on in the movie, you realize that the film doesn’t try to be a commercial potboiler. Instead, it’s a slow and gripping tale that sucks you into its world with great acting and greater dialogues.

Man Singh (Manoj Bajpayee) is a leader of a gang of bandits which consists of Lakhna (Sushant Singh Rajput), Vakila (Ranvir Shorey) and many others. Along with him, the bandits traverse the ravines on their foot (sometimes without food). Even though the story of this film moves at a slow pace, you never feel the urge to look at your mobile phone to count down the minutes until interval or until the movie ends.

Sushant Singh Rajput, who is definitely the biggest star of the film, doesn’t hog all the limelight and other characters have a proper part to play (and an opportunity to showcase their authentic Rajasthani accent). In the film, almost everyone is a villain (Sushant does show compassion and Bhumi Pednekar does not have a grey shade), and you don’t feel bad when the main guys get hit by a bullet. There’s hardly any humour (one scene did have the audience in splits though), and the background score does create an fearful atmosphere (something that goes hand-in-hand with a bandits life).

While I really want to see a lot of Bollywood films like ‘Sonchiriya’, I am skeptical if it’ll earn big bucks at the box office. It’s high time we stopped supporting bile like ‘Total Dhamaal’ and start appreciating films like ‘Sonchiriya’ instead. Unfortunately, I know that a lot of people from the Indian heartland have a different opinion.

Final verdict: 

If you want to see a film that allows you to forget your problems over a weekend, this may not be the right choice. But if you want to see something that’s different from the run of the mill stuff that Bollywood produces so often, choose this over Kartik Aaryan’s ‘Luka Chuppi’.

Watch trailer: