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‘Chhaya’ movie review: A wonderful little film with lofty aspirations

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Intact Media

If you find meaning in films that sensitise viewers on issues that are not broadly discussed but are deeply rooted in the culture, then you’ll find director Manoj Pandit’s Chhaya to be an important piece of cinema.

It’s also superbly crafted: A wonderful little film with lofty aspirations that tells the story of a sexually abused child (Saibrat Acharya) and the importance of the awareness on the subject matter.

Forget for once that Chhaya is an ‘issue-based’ cinema and that it is produced by Voice of Children in support of ECPAT, Luxembourg; organisations, which work for the betterment of children. Chhaya also works as a dramatic piece which, in equal measures, delves into the psyche of a victim while also telling the story of the fight for justice.

Chhaya eventually finds a middle path as the story progresses, especially in the final act where the conflict is distressing and its release, equally liberating.

For a better part of the movie, it seems as if director Pandit, who has previously directed Dasdhunga (2010) and Badhsala (2013), is finding it hard to situate the movie as a pure dramatic piece and a socially aware piece of cinema.

Chhaya eventually finds a middle path as the story progresses, especially in the final act where the conflict is distressing and its release, equally liberating.

And this may be director Pandit’s real feat in Chhaya: Containing the delicate subject matter in the confinements of a dramatic piece without losing the narrative traction or simplifying the issue or glorifying the suffering, for that matter.

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