Because the film is so clearly dubbed -which means they did not record sound on set, or if they did, they didn’t use that track - every line of dialogue in Netflix’s Rajma Chawal (the film) feels like a voice-over. And I’ve figured out half the problem - the other half is still the actors’ fault. It doesn’t help that the performances are universally poor - with the exception of Rishi Kapoor and his cronies, played by Harish Khanna, Manu Rishi Chadha and Jeetendra Shastri. Rishi Kapoor and his cronies, played by Harish Khanna, Manu Rishi Chadha and Jeetendra Shastri, are the highlight of Rajma Chawal. This was supposed to be a film about a father and son, and the rushed love story angle can’t help but feel tacked-on.
Ideally, she could have remained a supporting presence, but the decision to try and establish Seher as a full-fledged character halfway into the movie adds unnecessary complications to the plot. The real Tara, as it turns out, is called Seher (Amyra Dastur), and she comes with her own baggage. Alright, I probably have - there’s a Spike Lee movie in which it is revealed midway that the protagonist you’d been rooting for is a child molester - but this was rough. What could have been an engagingly funny story is bogged down by its insistence to add dramatic heft towards the second half, and I’ve never seen a movie derail as quickly and spectacularly as this. Amyra Dastur in a still from Netflix’s Rajma Chawal. But when - through one of the film’s many moments in which convenient coincidences are introduced to propel the plot - the real Tara bumps into Kabir, instead of taking the logical route out, the film doubles down on the nonsensical set-up. The momentary gratification of having a conversation with his son - although under disguise - forces him to continue the charade. Very soon, it is clear that Raj has been caught in a web of his own lies. She seems inquisitive about his relationship with his dad, which he accepts is troubled, but not entirely without respect.
Kabir being the angsty teen that he is - he’s also in a band and is inseparable from his acoustic guitar, you guys - immediately accepts Tara’s request and they begin talking. Rishi Kapoor’s character Catfishes his son in Rajma Chawal.
He picks a random picture of a girl online, and pokes Kabir with a friend request as Tara, a student from Canada. With the help of his friends, Raj Mathur (that’s Rishi’s character) purchases a smartphone, learns to use it in a day, and then proceeds to Catfish his own son. Kabir has a difficult time settling into the controlled chaos of Old Delhi, and his new neighbourhood - a secular community of old friends of his fathers’, a ‘sardarji’ and a ‘chacha’ and various other uncles and aunties - feels more like a crumbly old prison to him.įearing that his son might slip away, and desperate to rebuild their relationship, Kabir’s father concocts the most ridiculous plan. It’s a classic fish-out-of-water set-up, which the movie milks for about an hour. His old home in New Delhi, like the memories of his dead mother, have been snatched away. He has been uprooted by his father, played by Rishi Kapoor, and plonked in the sweaty gullies of their youth, in ‘Purani Dilli’s’ Chandni Chowk. We meet Kabir Mathur at a time in his life when he has become disillusioned with both.