Arvind Kumar and Seven Hillss Cine Creations Production’s Chicken Curry Law! (A) is the story of rape of a foreigner in India and the court drama that follows.
Maya Johnson (Natalia Janoszek) is a foreigner who works as a belly dancer in India. One day, after a performance in a hotel, she is sitting in the bar where Makrand Joshi (Ganesh Pai), son of an influential politician, Sharad Joshi (Zakir Husain), spikes her drink and takes her in his car. Accompanying him is his cousin, Nana Patil (Anirudh Sharma). The two men rape her in their bungalow and keep her captive for two days. They inject her with drugs with the aim of killing her. But she manages to escape. She is found by the police in a condition that makes it clear that she has been brutally raped. Social activist Satya Deshmukh (Nivedita Bhattacharya) takes up her case and prevails upon lawyer Sitapati Shukla (Ashutosh Rana) to fight her case in court. Shukla had given up his law practice after being convinced that the legal system in India was not for honest people like him.
While Sharad Joshi appoints Muthu Swamy (Makarand Deshpande) to argue the case of his son and nephew, Maya is represented in court by Sitapati Shukla. The police are on the side of the rapists as Sharad Joshi is very influential. They try to prove that Maya is a girl of easy virtues and hence it was not a case of rape. Along the way, the rapists eliminate Satya Deshmukh. The aim had been to kill Sitapati Shukla but the bullet hits Satya who dies.
Shukla gets lucky when he gets evidence of Makrand Joshi raping the wife of his own employee. He manages to record the evidence on his cell phone and also convinces the employee to give his witness in court. He also manages to convince the waiter in the bar, who had seen Maya’s drink being spiked by Makrand Joshi, to change his false evidence in court. But both the prospective witnesses are found dead before the date of the hearing. Sitapati Shukla is at his wits’ end. Maya is dejected and loses hope of getting justice. But Shukla makes a promise to her that he would get her justice.
Does Sitapati Shukla win the court case? Or do Sharad Joshi, his lawyer and the police manage to fool the court? Is Shukla able to keep his promise to Maya about getting the rapists jailed?
Shekhar Sirrinn has written a story which, after a point of time, becomes one of complete convenience. Sitapati Shukla gets witnesses so easily that his task hardly looks daunting. Also, since there have been umpteen films about rape, this story offers no novelty. Shekhar Sirrinn’s screenplay is okay in the first half but loses steam after interval as he resorts to convenient scripting in the second half. How Makrand Joshi gets burned is not even explained to those who do not know the reality. Such an important incident is treated with so much casualness that it makes the audience wonder what’s going on. Also, the climax does not give the viewers a feeling of exhilaration because of the huge collateral damage. The emotional appeal, so necessary in a drama of this kind, is completely missing. Sirrinn’s dialogues are good at places.
Natalia Janoszek does fairly well in the role of Maya Johnson. Ashutosh Rana is wonderful as lawyer Sitapati Shukla. His dialogue delivery is lovely. Makarand Deshpande is excellent as Muthu Swamy. Nivedita Bhattacharya leaves a lovely mark as social activist Satya Deshmukh. Zakir Husain lends able support as Sharad Joshi. Aman Verma gets limited scope and is good as Chhagan Patil. Ganesh Pai makes an impactful debut as Makrand Joshi. Anirudh Sharma is quite nice as Nana Patil. Jayant Wadkar makes his presence amply felt as the investigating police officer. As the judge, Firdaus Mewawala delivers a fine performance. Mukesh Hariawala (as the bar owner), Jeetendra (as the bar waiter), Hiten Tank (as the employee of Makrand Joshi), Saniya (as the employee’s wife), and the rest provide fair support.
Shekhar Sirrinn’s direction is good for a first-timer. He knows his job as a director but his script is not upto the mark. Shekhar Sirrinn’s music is alright. However, the songs are not of the popular variety. Lyrics (Shekhar Sirrinn, Shabbir Ahmed and Rajesh Manthan) are okay. Song picturisations (Vijay Ganguly and Dimple Ganguly) are functional. Amar Mohile’s background music is so-so. Suresh Beesaveni’s camerawork is commonplace. Parvez Khan’s action and stunt scenes are ordinary. Parijat Poddar’s art direction is ordinary. Editing (Shadab Khan) is quite sharp.
On the whole, Chicken Curry Law! is an ordinary courtroom drama which will go largely unnoticed for several reasons — it lacks novely, it does not have saleable names in its cast, and it has not been promoted well enough.
Released on 9-8-’19 at Inox (daily 1 show) and other cinemas of Bombay thru Panorama Studios. Publicity & opening: poor. …….Also released all over.