Kaanchi - The Unbreakable

Cast: Mishti aka Indrani Chakraborty (Kaanchi aka Sigdi), Kartik Aaryan (Binda), Mithun Chakraborty (Shyam Kakda), Rishi Kapoor (Jhumar Babu Kakda aka JB), Adil Hussain (Arun Roy), Rishabh Sinha (Sushant Kakda), Chandan Roy Sanyal (Ratanlal Bagula), Pallavi Subash Chandran aka Pallavi Purohit (Savita Pathare), Sahil Vaid (Satyakam), Meeta Vashisht (Mita), Shakti Mohan & Neeti Mohan (Item Song), Mahima Chaudhary (Special Appearance)

Genre: Romance (Musical), Thriller

Direction: Subhash Ghai

Production: Subhash Ghai’s Mukta Arts

Writer: Subhash Ghai

Cinematographer: Sudhir K Chaudhary

Editor: Subhash Ghai

Music: Ismail Darbar, Salim-Sulaiman, Simaab Sen (Background Score)

Lyricist: Irshad Kamil

Release Date: 25^th April, 2014

Language: Hindi

Duration: 2 hours 31 minutes

The Plot:

Kaanchi- The Unbreakable, a romantic-musical thriller, a much awaited movie of Subhash Ghai after a gap of five years (last movie was Yuvvraaj). Story of an ordinary girl Kaanchi from a village Koshampa (a village for army men) in Uttrakhand. It is about her grit, determination, courage to even question the system in her own manner. Subhash Ghai has gone for the blend of Romance with other issues viz. Patriotism, Political leaders’ ruthless / shrewd ways, corruption, even business leaders laying down the rules of the business, black money, helplessness of the common man facing unresponsive bureaucracy and government etc.         

The movie opened with Sub-Inspector Ratanlal Bagula (Chandan Roy Sanyal – Oh, I loved him in this movie, excellent work, refer the ‘Cast and their Performance’ header below) being questioned by a few Police officers and mainly by an investigation officer Arun Roy (Adil Hussain). Bagula is asked about the whereabouts of Sigdi Aka Kaanchi (Indrani Chakraborty, renamed by Subhash Ghai as Mishti). Arun asks Bagula to tell him the ‘truth behind the truth’. The story unfolds with his narration.

Koshampa is a village of retired army men and their families, in Uttarkhand and the heroine of the village is none other than Kaanchi. She stands for ‘what is right’ and Mr. Ghai has even projected her as giving abuses to men, if men trouble her, projected her fiery temperaments, never-compromising attitudes. Proud of her martyr father’s legacy, Kaanchi swaggers around wearing the thick khaki belt which was a part of her father’s military uniform.

Kaanchi is in love with Binda (Karthik Aaryan – Pyar ke Panchnama & Akaash Vani fame). Binda runs a Military Training School. He has three major philosophies:

1. Fear no evil
2. Do what is right
3. Fight for what is right.

There are definitely wonderful moments of love and teasing between Binda and Kaanchi (minus ‘Jhand’, ‘Jhalli’ etc.). Then the entry of Kakda(s) in Koshampa: Politician Shyam Kakda (Mithun Chakraborty) and his businessman brother Jhumar Baba Kakda (Rishi Kapoor) and Sushant Kakda (Rishabh Sinha – Qubool Hai- Zee TV serial fame and in this movie, son of Shyam Kakda). Binda is fighting a court case against Kakda(s) for their land of Koshampa. Kakdas want to buy this Koshampa village for their Koshampa Vally Infrastructure project.

Sushant Kakda, an artist, (and in his words he is unlike his dad and uncle), happens to meet Kaanchi with whom he falls in love. Sushant’s humbleness and Kaanchi’s simplicity and beauty bring them closer. Sushant gets miffed up on being rejected by Kaanchi, which made him an obsessive beast (overnight!!!).

Kaanchi gets a major setback / blow in her life, and she becomes a witness to her own miseries. But Kaanchi doesn’t mourn, she just gets up, moves ahead and reaches Mumbai at Ratanlal Bagula’s (her childhood acquaintance and senior in school) house and seeks support from him. Now it is Kaanchi vs. Kakda (s). What ensues is to be seen.

How the story moves further? What actually made  Kaanchi to stand against Kakda (s)? Does Bagula join her journey ? Who all becomes partners to Kaanchi’s journey ? What is the motive of Kaanchi ?   Does her mission remains personal or it shifts gears to a wider arena – socio-political ? Does she get to see success in her efforts ? We generally sing Sare Jahan se acha Hindustan humara – is it really so ? Or we need to sing Sare Jahan se acha ‘hoga’ Hindustan humara ? Is it all about women empowerment and an ode to new-age womanhood ?

 Official Trailer:

Director:

Director Subhash Ghai definitely does things in a style. And there are lot of Subash Ghai moments in the movie, right from introducing the main protagonist of the movie Kaanchi to adding glitz, glamour and some typical bollywood masala of item number. Kaanchi is well handled by him. I just wished, he could have added moments of more romance of Binda and Kaanchi, but then, he had to do justice to 2.5 hrs of the movie.  Dialogues could have been much better. Overall a good effort by Mr. Ghai.

Cast and their Performance:

The very first actor whom I want to mention is Chandan Roy Sanyal as Ratanlal Bagula. Absolute delight to watch him. He is good, funny, and has done complete justice to his pliable character. He did bring lot of smiles to my face.

Mishti aka Indrani Chakraborty as Kaanchi aka Sigdi, is good. Looks extremely beautiful in certain scenes. But I think, she looked too soft to ill mouth. Her innocent look did not support certain scenes. And her voice cracked when she went on a emotional high or shouted. And in certain scenes, her struts did not look very impressive. But given the fact that, Kaanchi is  this Bengali Model’s first movie, we shall appreciate her. A ‘Mishti’ performance.

Kartik Aaryan as Binda is good. I wish, he had a few more frames. At times, he also went loud, but definitely his screen presence is worth a mention.

Rishabh Sinha as Sushant Kakda is also good. I loved him when he played an artist in the movie. I think, he has yet to break his shayari-spouting image of Qubool Hai, but a great work from him in this movie.

Now, about the veterans, Mithun Chakraborty as Shyam Kakda and Rishi Kapoor Jhumar Babu Kakda aka JB are definitely very very convincing and so beyond any comments. Mithun’s dialogue –  सब  पद्धति  से होना है (a planned approach for everything) is noticeable.

Other cast Adil Hussain as investigation officer Arun Roy, Pallavi Subash Chandran aka Pallavi Purohit (Savita Pathare, secretary of Shyam Kakda), Sahil Vaid (Satyakam, Jai Yuva Sangh activist), Meeta Vashisht (Mita, Jai Yuva Sangh activist) are also good.

Shakti Mohan & Neeti Mohan does an Item Song with Mahima Chaudhary giving a special appearance.

Music:

Music is composed by Ismail Darbar, Salim Sulaiman and one song by Mr. Ghai himself.

Songs from Ismail Darbar: Kaanchi Re Kaanchi (Sukhwinder Singh), the very first song is melodious. Tu sab Kuch Re (Sonu Nigam, Anwesha Datta Gupta, Ismail Darbar) is very good supported with good visuals. Koshampa (Aman Trikha, Sachita, Anweshaa, Subhash Ghai) has energy. Kaisa Hai Dard Mera (Ankit Tiwari) is also good. But Adiye Adiye (Sanchita & Avril Quadros) is just ok.

Song from Subhash Ghai: Main Mushtanda (Mika Singh & Aishwarya Majumdar)… Oh…the lyrics are crap.

Songs from Salim-Sulaiman: Thumka (Sonu Nigam and Suzane D’mello) has the energy, but somehow, just ok. Hindustan Kahan hai (Sukhwinder Singh, Mohit Chauhan, Raj Pandit), a patriotic number is with lot of energy, but sounds familiar, novelty is missing.

Item Song: Kambal ke Neeche – does Mr. Ghai want to create another Choli ke Peeche? But yes, need to mention about the three Mohan sisters: Neeti Mohan has sung this song along with Aishwarya Majumdar and Sanchita. And her two sisters Shakti and Mukti Mohan feature in this song. The split move shown by Shakti Mukti and  at the end of the song is good.

Cinematographer

The movie is shot at Shimla and Mumbai. Sudhir K Chaudhary has given some great visuals through this movie especially that of Koshampa.

Moments to watch out for:

• Kaanchi’s indomitable spirit
• Kaanchi’s relationship with her mother
• Kaanchi’s strength as a female protagonist

Thumbs up:      

Watch this movie if you love Subhash Ghai and also to understand the very spirit of Kaanchi.  

Thumbs down:

Dialogues! Was it necessary to make Kaanchi ill mouth or say slangs ? Jhumar Baba’s fling with girls… not impressive. The character Kaanchi’s strength is tried to be justified through her training visuals at Military Training School of Binda but still, it is difficult to comprehend and believe that she survives her jump from a high point to deep river.

One-Liner:

‘Kaanchi – The Unbreakable’ is good to watch due to its ‘Unbreakable Spirit’...

Rating: 3 / 5 (Good)