Film Review: Choked

Choked: Paisa Bolta Hai is the latest film from Indian filmmaker, Anurag Kashyap, tackling a screenplay from Nihit Bhave. It takes place in Mumbai, back in 2016, and we follow a struggling, lower middle class family, trying to make do with what they have. We have Sarita Pillai (Saiyami Kher), a woman who works at a bank, the only source of income supporting the family since her husband, Sushant (Roshan Mathew), has been stuck with doing odd jobs on-and-off for several years, and spending most of his time doing housework, and taking care of their young son.

Sarita’s luck seems to turn when one night she discovers bundles of cash in the midst of overflown sewage that has leaked through the plumping in her home. Everything is great at first, Sarita is getting things she needs, she’s paying off some of her husband’s many debts, and helping neighbors. Unfortunately, things go downhill fast when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the demonetization of 500 and 2,000 rupee notes without warning as a way to curb dirty money. And without getting to deep into the nitty-gritty details for those unaware, it was a disastrous decision. Sarita’s money is essentially useless now, and she has to find a way to deal with it.

Anurag Kashyap is one of my favorite filmmakers out there. With works like Black Friday, Dev. D, Gangs Of Wasseypur, Ugly, among many others, he brings a distinct voice to the non-mainstream side of Indian filmmaking. What makes his new film, Choked standout is how much it deviates from his usual sensibilities. While he may not have written it, It’s still sly, political, and thoughtful. The filmmaking itself, however, is much more restrained. It doesn’t have the dark, electric, and propulsive energy that defines most of his work. Instead, the film is more of a slow burn, less stylized, aside from the occasional tracking shot, and far more family friendly compared to his previous films.

What makes the film works is how well drawn the leads are. We get flashes of an experience the two had when they were participants on a reality show where Sushant played the guitar while Sarita sang, but at a pivotal moment, she choked up, and just couldn’t perform. Their failure on that show has had an effect on their marriage. Sushant at one point early on is ridiculed by one of his many nosy neighbors because he is a stay-at-home dad, and his feeling of emasculation only furthers tensions between him and Sarita. One funny moment has the two bickering over something, and forcing their son to wake up, so that he can prove whose side was correct.

The film is very much a skewering of Prime Minister Modi’s policy and the way those demonetization policies affected people on the ground level. Sushant is shown as someone who is supportive of Modi, even celebrating when the demonetization was announced, thinking it will do good, and not affect them. It even digs at the way Modi is idolized among his supporters, and how the something like demonetization ultimately won’t do much aside from harming the poor and working class because the ones with power will find ways around it. Their performances and their dynamic on screen handles the material with emotional heft and nuance.

The only things that keeps Choked: Paisa Bolta Hai from hitting the peaks of some of Anurag Kashyap’s other films is that the sense of urgency isn’t as strongly felt, even in scenes that are meant to be tense. The ending feels a bit rushed, and while it’s not the biggest dealbreaker, I don’t think the film is particularly accessible to people who are not aware of the political context being explored here, even I had to do a little bit of research to get a larger grasp at the broader implications of what happened. It is minor Kashyap at the end of the day, but it’s still quite good, and engaging, and Saiyami Kher is especially fantastic, balancing a tough exterior with relatable vulnerabilities. It just hit Netflix, and I would say it’s worth your time.