Choked Review: Anurag Kashyap uses demonetisation as a prop, not a tool for politics

Choked drains metaphorically capture the chaos of lower middle-class lives. You stir a little, it drains a little. You heave a sigh of relief. Moments later, it gushes out water again. The water stinks. The remnants of kitchen waste that seep through the sink add to the stench. Water itself has no smell.

The plumber is called in. He plugs out the obstruction. In that moment when the plumber says, “ho gaya”, there is relief. Then the remnants collect again till the drain clogs again. The bills to be paid, the fees to be submitted, the food to be bought, the loans to be cleared, the gifts that must be exchanged are remnants that clog lives.

Anurag Kashyap’s Choked: Paisa Bolta Hai brings out this story of life with its many chokeholds against the backdrop of demonetisation. The nearly 1-hour-50-minute movie is still not about demonetisation. At best, the noteban is a prop in the film. Kashyap doesn’t turn the prop into a tool for his politics.

The movie is not really a take on demonetisation, but how it cropped up as an aberration in the lives of those who were living it one chokehold to the other.

Sarita Pillai (Saiyami Kher), a cooperative bank teller, bears the entire financial burden of the family because her musician husband Sushant (Roshan Mathew) is jobless and in debt. Sarita’s job as a bank teller is as boring as life can be. Home offers no relief because the husband is no help.

The middle-class neighbourhood Sarita and Sushant live in is intrusive and can’t keep to itself. Members of the neighbourhood are as eager to peep into the lives of others as they are to offer a close look into theirs. Assumptions of illicit affairs are quickly gulped as truths because no one wants to believe otherwise. Despite intrusion, there is warmth.

The neighbourhood celebrates when demonetisation is announced, thinking the rich have finally been hit. Then they are faced with the noteban impact on their own lives. There is such an easy connect with the problems the characters in Choked face due to the demonetisation, that you may smile through the part. Now, that we have left it behind.

Sarita and Sushant play the part of a couple not having an easygoing relationship. If there is love, they never say it to each other. But they get each other’s backs whenever the need pops up.

Rooting out corruption was cited as one of the reasons for making us stand in those queues described as serpentine, but demonetisation also saw corruption around its implementation. None of it will strike you like it wants to wake you up. Kashyap knows people know. He doesn’t try to educate. He only tries to tell the story of a couple and their neighbours who are trying to unclog a drain, start businesses, and organise marriages. They all cheat a little here, a little there. It’s more like hera pheri than ghotala.

Indian movies around political themes or contemporary developments are rare. Rarer still is a fair or balanced take on those developments. Years later, when it will be difficult to find popular cinema woven around the politics of our times, offering a balanced take, Choked will stand out.

“Kitna amount hai?” Choked never tells you that. But you’ll know it’s enough to heave a sigh of relief.

Also Read | Trial by Fire: Can Uddhav Thackeray handle Maharashtra's Covid-19 nightmare?