Chhodo Kal Ki Baatein Hindi Movie
I struggled to wrap my work, careened my car amidst mad traffic and reached the theater to catch up on the press show of the release of this week Chhodo Kal Ki Baatein only to realize it was the biggest ironical juxtaposition for a day filled with excess work stress.
Heavily 'inspired' by Hollywood comedy Groundhog Day, Chhodo Kal Ki Baatein is about Aditya (Sachin Khedekar) who is a workaholic. So much so, that he almost lives his life having horse blinders on ignoring his familial life completely. After a serious tiff with his wife (Mrinal Kulkarni), Aditya ends up spending a Sunday alone at home. The proceedings of the day don't work in his favour and he ends the day dreaming of a better Monday only to realize the following day that his Sunday gets repeated. The proceedings happen same as the day he spent before and the cycle continues many more days until he realizes the true meaning of life.
The cyclic repetition of scenes was last seen in Hollywood hit Source Code where the film keeps revolving around eight minutes. Similar is the case with CKKB where a day gets repeated over and over again, but the proceedings of CKKB are so loud, caricaturist and annoying that it becomes difficult to sit through it. The movie however, does become better in the second half with the entry of Anupam Kher and even the message of the film starts unfurling then.
Filmmaker Pramod Joshi rolls all self-help books like Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, Eat, Pray, Love, Who Will Cry When You Die among others into one. What he ends up concocting is a highly preachy fair. The film almost becomes self explanatory after a point making the excessive stress of seeking happiness from small things, peace etc. quite redundant and dreadfully long.
Having said that, the honest intention of the film comes to fore in every way and does strike a chord with the people actually making you sit back and think about the real meaning of life.
Both Sachin Khedekar and Anupam Kher are decent in their parts and play their characters convincingly. While the other characters such as Mrinal Kulkarni are average at best. Music is ear-splitting, specially the songs Kaam Kar and Atak Gaya.
Over all, Chhodo Kal Ki Baatein has the heart in its place but gets mired by faulty execution.
