Chhorii - Movie Review

What do you get when you take the current culture war occurring in Indian society and wrap it in a big budget ghost story steeped in the legends of the past?

The best Amazon Original Film ever put on the platform.

Let’s discuss.

What a way to end the year.

Jesus…

…(sigh)

This movie is the Indian Midsommar.

Anyone who knows me I don’t drop the M-bomb lightly. Midsommar was a game changer for me. It’s my favorite film released by A24, who in turn is my favorite film company. I’m not exaggerating here. I have goosebumps thinking about certain scenes in Chhorii, just like I do when I think of Midsommar.

To understand this film, it helps to have at least a general concept of India and it’s culture. I’m lucky enough to have taken a few courses on India including anthropology, religion, and gender studies. What’s crazy about India is that all of these things are seemingly inseparable. The main issue that cascades societal disparity is India’s refusal to do away with the Caste System and it’s ideals. The Caste system is a hierarchal system where your family line determines the value of your life. Not only that, it determines what jobs you can have, where you can live, etc. There’s a massive flow chart of the current breakdown of classes, but for generalities sake it starts on high with the 1-Percenters of the Brahmins all the way down to the untouchable Dalit. While the Brahmins are treated like royalty, the Dalit are treated like human debris. To make matters worse, women’s rights are scarce. In this cultural system, women are second to men in every step of life. They are expected barefoot in the kitchen and are not even permitted to eat until after the men have finished their meals. It upsets me, because I was raised in ‘Merica and my personal beliefs involve everyone being equal no matter race, gender, or sexual orientation.

We often forget that in other countries women and LGBT folks are treated as second class citizens and even as criminals. If a woman has a miscarriage in India and her father-in-law reports it to the authorities as suspicious she could face jail time or at minimum a fine. Abortion has been “legalized” recently, but the Indian parliament snuck in line items that makes it nearly impossible for women to get such treatment even if there’s extreme medical complication or if the pregnancy is a product of rape. Speaking of which, the rape rate is insanely high in India and the reported rape of lower classes is next to 0, because the police don’t care about the human debris. This has led to high rates of female infanticide, forced miscarriages, murders, and more. As in the cultural tradition of India, male babies are what is desired. Female babies aren’t considered heirs, so they’re just more meat for the grinder.

Luckily, millennials and the generations coming up behind them are fighting these disgusting patriarchal and barbaric practices, but it’s a knockdown drag-out fight. Progress is slow moving due to superstition and the lack of human decency. This film blew my mind with the subjects that were covered and I’m grateful T-Series backed this message.

So with this crash course, let’s get into this masterpiece of a film.

Chhorii is a 2021 Indian Haunted House horror film brought to us by writer/director Vishal Furia. The film centers on a young teacher, Sakshi, played by the entrancing Nushrratt Bharuccha. Sakshi and her husband Hemant have the ideal life. She works at a high-end private school and he’s a software developer. Together they live in a fancy mansion with a chauffeur to cater to their needs. When a group of men break into their house in the middle of the night and Hemant is badly beaten, Sakshi learns their life is a sham. Hemant borrowed money from bad people and they only have 24 hours to pay it back. With nowhere else to turn they ask their chauffeur for aid and he takes them to the safest place he knows, an isolated house in the middle of a sugarcane plantation, 300km (180ish miles) from civilization. As Sakshi tries to settle into her new home, she finds little comfort among the family paid to care for her and their antiquated practices. Worse yet, something creeps beyond the rows. An insatiable force of darkness lies in wait and Sakshi alone stands in it’s path. Will she survive the coming onslaught and save her child, or will she be devoured? Find out in Chhorri!

First off—this isn’t a Bollywood film. I know most Americans see an Indian title and immediately picture the iconic dancing and cringe acting. Indian film in recent years has churned out some amazing thriller and horror films. This is the best so far. The production values are out of this world.

This film is gorgeous. Watching this with my constant movie-night companion, Leslie, we both marveled at the cinematography and especially the lighting work. The plantation and the light/shadows are characters unto themselves. The work done by the director of photography, Anshul Chobey is flawless. Teamed with the brutal special effects work by Shaikh Faruq’s team at Illusion Ethereal Studios, it’s just a one-two punch to the eyes. When you add the incredible musical score by Ketan Sodha it makes a film that would be incredible without dialogue. You could watch this film with just the music and be just as intrigued and terrified.

Alright, I can’t say anything else without calling it out.

Say it with me now:

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSPOILERSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

The pacing along with the score really make this film come alive. Where the story starts basic, it adds layer after layer to the plot. It does this through incidental eavesdropping, non-verbal tells between characters, and through creative and tricky dialogue.

In the written form, stories can have an unreliable narrator. It’s easier to putt this off in the written word, because there is normally only one voice providing input. In film, it’s often harder as film relies on the conflux of multiple characters and their interaction. To hide the bluff takes cunning and precision that is often way too much work. What this film does masterfully is burying the truth in plain sight.

Everything that is going to happen is revealed through nursery rhymes sung by a ravenous ghost and the equally ferocious matriarch Sister Devi.

Every insight given to Sakshi by Sister Devi is false, but contains breadcrumbs of truth. Every warning has a secondary intent. It’s the same with the central monster, the ghost of Suneni. Every threat contains a declaration of love. Each terrifying vision provides the steps to escape. It’s an interesting take on the gender war currently raging, as Suneni represents the woman who has been abused and wishes vengeance, Devi represents the old guard who refuse to let go of her shackles of superstition, and Sakshi is the feminist who just wants to have control of her own life.

When we got to the second to last day at the plantation, I told Leslie what I thought the reveal was going to be. I was 100% accurate. I say this not as a negative, but as a compliment to the screenwriters and the actors. I was able to put the pieces together in my head logically from the various parables relayed throughout the film to that point. When it was all assembled, it made sense. Very few films pull this off. There’s usually a McGuffin or in the case of anything involving J.J. Abrams—massive plotholes.

This film wraps up the entire story by the final credits. There’s no loose ends, no lead-in to a sequel.

Given, it is a remake of Lapachhapi, but I can’t hold that against it. Like most anyone who will read this review, I’d never heard of Lapachhapi.

Watch this movie if you like isolation horror, haunted house films, and you can handle disturbing levels of violence (keeping in mind the protagonist is 8 months pregnant)

Please watch this movie. Share it to your friends.

It’s brutal, but so is the society its taking a stand against.

Chhorii is streaming exclusively on Amazon Prime.