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Review - Checkmate ( Marathi ): Double double-crossing!
Checkmate ( Marathi )
![[Poster for Checkmate ( Marathi )]](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2677/4116435485_4e18cb4046_m.jpg)
The plot twists in Checkmate indeed make your grey cells twist and turn as they would in a game of chess. Unfortunately, the events develop at a pace that unplugs you instead of getting you hooked. Also, since the non-linear narration is not from any particular point of view, the twists seem random and all over the place. This makes the non-linearity itself rather haphazard.
The base story takes its own time to formulate and settle down. On the way it develops the main characters' frustration with their situation. However, the different traits of these characters are not given full vent. And thus, the initial character development seems in vain. Unfortunately, yet again, the only way a woman can achieve anything is by using her sexuality, however intelligent she is. The actors playing these characters also give no earth-shattering performances, but neither does any one of them make you pull your hair apart. Each one is just doing his/her bit.
The voiceover narrative style used throughout the movie gives the feel of watching a choppy chain of events rather than a story flowing from one plot into another. However, it was a nice touch to have the voiceovers pass judgments about other characters also, rather than just narrating the story.
My basic problem is with the pace of the movie. A thriller has to be on the move. It cannot pause to take a breather; it cannot stop on seashores just because. A pause has to be about something, it has to be pregnant, has to do something via the background music or the camerawork. But here the pauses just exist because the director thinks he is building suspense. Nope...tedium he is surely building.
Had it been shorter by 15 minutes, it could well have been worth a watch. But people crossing and double-crossing and double-double-crossing till they themselves lose track is pretty annoying by the time the end credits roll.
- meetu, a part of the audience
Checkmate ( Marathi ) - Movie Details
- Producer: Nishad Audio Visuals
- Director: Sanjay Jadhav
- Lead Cast: Sanjay Narvekar, Ankush Chaudhari, Swapnil Joshi, Sonali Khare, Rahul Mehandale
- Supporting Cast: Vinay Apte, Anand Abhyankar, Ravi Kale, Uday Sabnis
- Story: Sanjay Jadhav
- Screenplay: Vivek Apte
- Cinematography: Sanjay Jadhav
- Running time: 135 minutes
- Reviewer: meetu
- Categories: Regional
- Genres: Suspense, Thriller
Checkmate ( Marathi ) - Trailer
Checkmate ( Marathi ) - All reviews summary
Comments (5)
to make up for no new releases this week? :)
:) Yes sir! More coming up...
THis is with reference to meetu comments
Yesterday only I had seen the movie. The non-linear narrative technique has infact worked great. THree people are retorting the entire scenario with thier different point of views making the viewer a bit anxious of the present conditions they are in and also the story comes down well defined with a smooth draft initially and one by one they go on adding the new dimensions which were actually limited to the story teller and which were filtered initially. sometimes it was Vishal, sometimes it was Bhave or sometimes it is BCOM.
One gets the feel that all of them are held in a single place by all the villians due to the dark room view common for all the three guys and are being interrogated with torcher.
The story is first drafted to its simplicity, so that the viewer gets a hang of the entire story in its totality. and then suddenly the other dimensions to the story comes unfolding with the different narrators which are infact twists and turns as what the viewer gets the feel.
The finale is a well crafted brilliance where the viewer gets a deja vu feeling by the repetition of the dialogus of murphy law by VIshal and hence the beginning of the movie unfolds making the viewer realize that the story is actually being retorted at three different places to different audiences, no body getting a complete picture other than us the viewers. Once again hats off to this style of screenplay and editing.
why do meetu feels that the story is discontinuos is not known. since the story teller has taken great pains to make the plot look convincingly continous. Also it is crazy to pinpoint of using women as an object rather than an intellectual object. c mon its just the story. This is not going to revolutionise the way people think about women... HAHA
Also the pace of the movie is good enough to keep the viewer hooked on to the movie
Thanks Surendra More, for pointing out what you liked about the movie!
Come on - get real. This is a brilliantly executed film. I agree the actors are not extraordinarily brilliant but they were perfect for the role - and the director used them perfectly to deliver the story to us. Swapnil rocked. The story kept you guessing till the end - but in the end there was no confusion. I actually liked the way it went back-and-forth and guided the users. Excellent Sanjay, Excellent Vivek. Superb Swapnil. A must watch. Better than most Bollywood - and quite a few hollywood movies.
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