Anand Motion Pictures’ Zindagi Shataranj Hai (UA) is the story of a person who impersonates a rich businessman.
Kavita (Kavita Tripathy) can’t believe it when a stranger (Hiten Tejwani) claims to be her husband, Vishal (Zaid Shaikh). Investigating police officer Raj Shekhar (Ashutosh Kaushik), Kavita’s house help, Vasu (Hemant Pandey), and her doctor, Dr. Shah (Pankaj Berry), also agree that the stranger is Kavita’s husband. Even while Kavita is wondering what’s happening, she gets the news one day that the dead body of her real husband has been found at her farmhouse.
What is the truth? If Vishal’s dead body is found at the farmhouse, who is the stranger? Who has killed Vishal?
M. Salim has written such a silly story that it absolutely and completely fails to involve the viewers. His screenplay is terrible. The audience wonder what is actually happening and why. The drama appears so ridiculous that it becomes a painful exercise to watch it unfold on the screen. M. Salim’s dialogues are worse than one can imagine.
Hiten Tejwani does a sincere job as the stranger posing as Vishal. Kavita Tripathy is ordinary as Kavita. Hemant Pandey acts quite well as house help Vasu. Ashutosh Kaushik lends average support as police inspector Raj Shekhar. Pankaj Berry is alright as Dr. Shah. Zaid Shaikh has a tiny role as Vishal. He is so-so. Shawar Ali also has a very brief role as Saurav. His performance is okay. Rajkumar Kanojia (as hawaldar Kadam) passes muster. Dalder Mehndi appears in a song-dance.
Dushyant Pratap Singh’s direction is poor. Of the two songs (music by Anjjan Bhattacharya and Indrani Bhattacharya), the Daler Mehndi number (old song) is okay while the other is weak. Ajay Kumar’s lyrics are dull. Chhotu Lohar’s choreography is nice. Chandrashekhar’s background music is functional. Suhas Rao’s cinematography is average. Editing (Sunil Yadav and Arun Yadav) is loose.
On the whole, Zindagi Shataranj Hai is a flop show.
Released on 20-1-’23 at Movie Time Goregaon (daily 1 show) of Bombay thru Jai Viratra Entertainment Ltd. Publicity & opening: dull. …….Also released all over.