Charles Sobhraj , nicknamed as "The Bikni Killer" and "The Serpant", is a French serial killer of Vietnamese and Indian origin, who preyed on Western tourists throughout Southeast Asia during the 1970s. The dark and intense thriller Main Aur Charles is a good attempt in recollecting the activities performed by Charles Sobhraj during his lifetime but falls little short of making it a perfect watch.
Based on the true story of criminal mastermind , Main Aur Charles gives a detailed description of his dark deeds told from the perspective of an Indian cop, Amod Kanth who looked into the case of serial killer.
From the director of critical acclaim films like Darna Marna Hain and 404:Error Not Found, Prawal Raman divulges into new territory of adapting a biography of a criminal using his knowledge of directing previous dark-thrillers and come up with intelligent, brutal and alluring plot. He defines each characters to tell their own version of Charles in the first half and uses the second half to present the main protagonist. The movie does not waste anytime with unnecessary song-dance routine and sticks to the main point which is the highlight of the film. Hats off to Raman for making it crispy and watchable film. The Tihar jail escape is well-executed. On the flip side, the screenplay sometimes looses the track and is unable to weave things around. Cinematography and art direction is excellent introducing to the 70's era with aplomb
Performance wise, you cannot think of anyone apart from Randeep Hooda playing the character of Charles Sobhraj. The actor perfectly gets into the character as it was tailor made for him. He adapts the charm and persona of Charles with ease. Richa Chadha is a delight to watch. Adil Hussain gives in a brilliant act as Indian cop, Amod Kanth.
Overall, Main Aur Charles is dark, intellectual and brutal film with brilliant performances. Good 3/5
– Ketan Gupta
