Bollywood Movie Review : CHOCOLATE

Cast:

Anil Kapoor, Suniel Shetty, Arshad Warsi, Irrfan Khan, Emran Hashmi, Tanushree Dutta, Sushma Reddy

Director: Vivek Agnihotri
Music Director : Pritam
Lyrics : Dev Kohli, Mayur Puri, Ajeet Srivastava
Producer : Vibha-Ragini

REVIEW:
What would you expect from the director of films like One Man Show, Kalyanaraman, Pulivaal Kalyanam, Thommanum Makkalum and Mayavi? No doubt a full-length, colourful entertainer with an interesting story and ample dosages of humour, songs and well-choreographed dance sequences. Well, that's exactly what Shafi gives you in his sixth and latest offering, which too is on the way to becoming another box office success. Chocolate, true to its name, is a yummy kind of film, one that you'd love to savour to the fullest extent. It's colourful, entertaining and youthful to the core.

The film tells the story of things that happen when a male student gets admitted to a Women's college where more than three thousand girls study, some of whom are dead against a male entering their preserve. Prominent among these are Anne, Nandana and Susan, who to a very great extent, rule the campus. But the principal, who was always in favour of making it into a co-ed college, decides to give admission to Shyam Balagopal, the son of one of the lecturers there, and a spoilt brat if there ever was one. Not willing to take this lying down, Anne, Nandana and Susan, decide to make the going hard for Shyam.

But Shyam is not what they had anticipated him to be. He had created problems wherever he had studied earlier and hence had never lasted long in any institution. He wasn't bothered whether he would last long in this one either, although there were many like Pappan (who ran the cyber café) and his friend Riyaz among others who had much fancied being out and about in this all-women's college. With Shyam's admission, these guys begin to feel that they too would get a chance to make their dreams come true.

There is another person who approaches Shyam with a different kind of request. He is Renjith, a young fashion designer, who wants to make Nandana his model (his real motive is something else!). He wants Shyam to help him in getting Nandana to agree to model and walk the ramp for him. All these combine to create the build up towards a very exciting and emotion-packed climax. Prithviraj as Shyam is excellent. The way he plays the character, the timing that he displays in the comedy scenes, the energy that he breathes into the role make him endearing. Roma has done an excellent job as Anne, while Samvritha Sunil is good as Nandana. Jayasurya as Renjith is perfect, while Remya Nambeeshan is OK as Susan. Shaari as the principal, Laloo Aalex as Anne's father, Rajan P. Dev as Nandana's father, Salim Kumar as Pappan, Anoop Chandran as Riyaz, Bindu Panicker as Maria (who runs the college canteen) etc have all done full justice to their respective roles.

The songs have been choreographed well, in true Shafi style and sync perfectly with the theme and the mood. "Kalkanda Malare..." and "Ishtamalle.. ." are good ones. Technical aspects are excellent. Debutantes Sachi and Sethu, who penned the story and the script, deserve to be appreciated for having come up with so exciting an entertaining a subject. Bravo Shafi, Sachi, Sethu, Prithviraj, Roma and everyone else! To sum up, Chocolate is a clean entertainer, a perfect film for a festive season! Go and watch it with your family!