Produced and directed by engineer-turned-filmmaker Suneet Arora, Chitkabrey is being touted as the boldest movie ever made in India.
The film revolves around the lives of seven couples entwined in the complexities of relationships. Through different couples, the film shows love – love, love-hate, hate – love, hate – hate relations. From the outside, each of them seems like a happy close knit family. However, it gets murkier, as we delve deeper into their secret lives. There is a treachery, deceit and lies!
Through the means of the film, the director has tried to bring across the truth behind the relations. Do they actually have the strength to survive the test of time or do they wither away or maybe become stronger , forms the crux of the story line. In the end, Chitkabrey – Shades of Grey has a message that no relationship can be perfectly black or white-it is usually blended into shades of grey and a strong human foundation makes a better society.
Chitkabrey is about 7 couples and the protagonist Rakesh Chaubey (Ravi Kishan) invites them for a party at one location and makes them realize the instances where each of them has taken unethical or immoral stance in life, which in one way or the other had affected Rakesh Chaubey’s life 15 years back.
Joginder Singh Grewal / Jaggy comes from a very rich family and has gone even richer by doing his handicraft export business. He was raised in arrogance and is fearless. He thinks whatever he does he thinks is right. He has travelled all over the world. He loves women wealth and wine. While his wife Palak is not very educated but has a rich style and has a good taste. Her opinion is very important for Jaggy in personal life and in business. Jaggy has employed her entire family into his own business.
Edwin Vergese comes from Kerala but has a mental block about starting his own business. Wants to excel in the job he does. Edwin’s wife Rekha’s Dad was in the army and she has travelled all over India. Since his childhood she played with boys and always had boys as friends. Rekha believes that men and women are equal and women should be respected. She is fitness freak but takes pills to relieve from stress.
Balaji Narayan was born in Vizag in a slum , worked very hard to get away from the filth . He went to New York, US after he got a job in Software and was very hard working. He met Cindy there and used to help her and that was the reason Cindy could keep her job. She would finish her project in time because of Bala .
Deepak Sareen was an orphan and he does not know what’s his background in terms of caste, religion etc. He was picked by Mr. and Mrs. Sareen when he was 5. Has a soft corner for people with short comings. Sandhya was a teacher at a school and her only goal in life was to remove poverty. Was much pampered when little.
Jayan Patel does not smoke. Says ‘abe saale’ a lot . Anything he says he laughs. He worked at a gas station and became a hotelier. Anjali is an ordinary NRI woman, very professional, articulate, working class, highly organized, matching wardrobe. She is very secure with herself.Obsessive compliments to everything and everyone, takes away the special feel of compliments.
Amaan Ali Siddiqui always wanted to be an IAS officer and which he finally made into. Due to his political connection he joined politics and got an MLA ticket and won.
The basic premise of the film Chitkabrey revolves around the problem of ragging which fills young minds with images of intense torture and misery. The film is fast paced and has a plot peppered with exciting twists and turns, which has begins with a great note, but then proceeds to become a confusing mish-mash of events compounded with loud amateurish performances by the cast.
At times one feels there is an overdose of drama woven around the protagonist who has the strangest of laughter. It appears a bit preachy about the negatives of ragging. There are some bold intimate scenes and thankfully, there are no songs or item numbers in Chitkabrey.
Cast of Chitkabrey:
Rakesh Chaubey – Ravi Kishan
Joginder Singh Grewal – Rajesh Shringarpure
Palak Grewal – Akshara Gowda
Edwin Vergese – Akshay Singh
Rekha Vergese – Khushboo Gupta
Balaji Narayan – Bobby Vatsa
Cyndi Narayan – Svitlana Manolyo
Deepak Sareen – Ssanjay Swaraj
Sandhya Sareen – Divya Dwivedi
Jayan M Patel – Rahul Singh
Anjali Patel – Puja Gupta
Amaan Ali Siddiqui – Kuldeep Dubey
Fauzia – Jaswinder Gardener
Budhadeb Basu – Vishwajeet Chaterjee
Kavita Basu – Sussana Mohan
Unmarried Friend Shankar – Amit Bhardwaj
Real Estate Agent – Ehsaan Khan
Credits & Crew of Chitkabrey:
Banner – Avant Garde Productions
Producer – Suneet Arora
Executive Producer – Manish Maingi, Rajesh Kumar
Director – Suneet Arora
Music Director – Akshay Bafila
Cinematography – K Raj Kumar
Art – Sanjay Jadhav
Editor – Kuldeep Mehan
Screenplay – Sanjay Masoom, Vishal Vijay Kumar, Suneet Arora
Dialogue – Sanjay Masoom
Costume Designer – Avesh Dadlani
Chitkabrey – movie review