‘CHAAR LUGAAI’ REVIEW | 19 May, 2023

Stripes Entertainment LLP’s Chaar Lugaai (A) is the story of four women who live in the village while their husbands work in the city.

Usha (Nidhi Uttam), Rashmi (Mansi Jain), Meenu (Deepti Gautam) and Ranju (Kamal Sharma) are neighbours living in a village. Their husbands work in the city and visit them only occasionally. Usha and Ranju are co-sisters.

Starved of sex, Usha makes out with a body-builder, Duggu (Abhinav Seeshore), who works for the village pradhan (Ashok Sharma). A few days later, Rashmi and Meenu also express their desire to get physical with Duggu. With the intention of giving Rashmi and Meenu fun time with Duggu, Usha invites him home. However, Duggu dies in Usha’s house. Ultimately, the death of Duggu becomes a police case. Police inspector Santosh Gupta (Saanand Verma) starts investigations. The suspects are the village pradhan, Dr. Rastogi (Brijendra Kala), and the four women.

Was Duggu’s death a murder? Is anyone arrested? What happens finally?

Prakash Saini has written a story about the sexual desires of women, but it loses steam midway. The screenplay, written jointly by Prakash Saini, Anju Patel and Manish Kaushik, is not consistent and, therefore, the drama bores, especially in the second half. Of course, the first half has its share of raunchy comedy which is entertaining, but the drama loses its thrill once it turns into a police case. The thrill element, so necessary in a drama like this, is missing from that point onwards. Even the empathy for the four women friends reduces after a point of time. Anju Patel’s dialogues are okay.

Nidhi Uttam does well as Usha. Mansi Jain is good as Rashmi. Kamal Sharma is so-so as Ranju. Deepti Gautam is ordinary as Meenu. Brijendra Kala lends fair support as Dr. Rastogi. Saanand Verma is just about okay as police inspector Santosh Gupta. Abhinav Seeshore is alright as Duggu. Ashok Sharma lends ordinary support as the village pradhan. Others pass muster.

Prakash Saini’s direction is average. His editing needed to be sharper. Deepti Gautam’s music and lyrics are functional only. Nikhil Sharma’s choreography is dull. Anup Bhat’s background music is routine. Sonu Paswan’s camerawork is okay. Production designing (Shashank Gagan and Krishti) is okay.

On the whole, Chaar Lugaai will find the going at the box-office, tough because of the ordinary second half and lack of face value.

Released on 19-5-’23 at Gem (daily 1 show) and other cinemas of Bombay thru Multimedia Combines. Publicity & opening: poor. …….Also released all over.