NFDC’s Chidiakhana is the story of a passionate football player and how he strives to lead his school team to victory in spite of a number of odds.
Sooraj (Ritvik Sahore) lives with his mother (Rajeshwari Sachdev). They keep moving from one city to another, something which Sooraj has never understood although he has come to terms with it. Sooraj also doesn’t know who his father is, something which his classmates everywhere tease him about. Sooraj and his mother have just recently moved to a new city. Being very passionate about the game of football, Sooraj is keen to play in the school team. But the football team captain, Babu (Jayesh Kardak), is not receptive to the idea of letting Sooraj become a part of the team.
One day, the school principal (Anjan Srivastav) announces that the ground on which the students play football, will have to be surrendered to the government. A local don, Bhau (Govind Namdev), has his eyes on the football ground, and he has used his political connections to ensure that the school is made to surrender the ground. But Pratap (Prashant Narayan), an ex-football player, asks the principal to approach the mayor (Nagesh Bhonsle) and request him to spare the football ground. Finally, it is decided that only if the school team is able to win a football tournament against a champion team could the ground be retained by the school for playing football. It falls upon Sooraj to save the football ground, but will he be able to achieve what seems to be an impossible task?
Manish B. Tiwary has written the story which lacks novelty as one has seen stories of passionate sports persons who have to fight all odds to realise their dreams, in earlier sports films. Besides lack of novelty, another negative point is that several points in the story are not clearly spelt out. The screenplay, written by Manish B. Tiwary, Sonal Sher and Padmaja Thakore, is ordinary. The points of Sooraj’s mother changing cities, of Bhau eyeing the football ground, of Pratap’s relationship with Sooraj’s mother, and several others are so sketchy that the audience are not able to empathise with the characters. No doubt, the game of football in the long climax is exciting but that doesn’t nullify the negative impact of the half-baked story and screenplay. In a drama of this kind, the viewers ought to be moved to tears at several places, but that doesn’t happen at any point. The trio’s dialogues are ordinary.
Ritvik Sahore does a fine job as Sooraj. He acts very naturally. Avneet Kaur is confident in the role of Mili. Prashant Narayan lends able support in the role of Pratap. Rajeshwari Sachdev makes her mark as Sooraj’s mother. Anjan Srivastav has his moments as the school principal. Govind Namdev is effective in the role of Bhau. Jayesh Kardak is nice as Sooraj’s classmate, Babu. Pushkaraj Chirputkar does well as Sikka. Ajay Jadhav is alright as the teacher and scorer. Sanjay Bhatia impresses as commissioner Lohe. Nagesh Bhonsle is okay as the mayor. He has been made to act more like a fan than the mayor. Ravi Kishan makes his presence felt in a tiny role. Others lend routine support.
Manish B. Tiwary’s direction, like his script, is not very convincing. Viveick Rajagopalan’s music and Anil Pandey’s lyrics are functional. A couple of hit or, at least, well-tuned songs were needed. Sriram Ganapathy’s cinematography is alright. Vasu Patil’s production designing is okay. Irene Dhar Malik and Manish B. Tiwary’s editing could’ve been tighter.
On the whole, Chidiakhana will go largely unnoticed because it lacks merits as well as face value.
Released on 2-6-’23 at Metro Inox (daily 1 show) and other cinemas of Bombay thru Platoon Distribution. Publicity & opening: very poor. …….Also released all over.