Chocolate: Deep Dark Secrets

It is really tough to understand actually what the hell the Director and the Storywriter tried to prove! To be very honest, at first it attracts me a lot. But, at the end when I got to see that there is no story at all, I was about to slap myself.

Starting was awesome, specially the way they give the intro of each person and gradually they went down and finally became a trash.

Songs are OK, cinematography is also cool. But a film deserves a story which was totally missing.

In Bangladesh we always expect good and classical Hindi films. Karan Johor or Yash Raj films have set up a level and we hope other director will try to touch or cross that level. To do so, they will have to stop making this types of films.

My wife rented this movie from the local Desi video store (of course it was bootlegged) and I caught bits and pieces of it while she was watching but what caught my attention was right at the end as all was being revealed. I noticed how it was all lifter directly from "The Usual Suspects" and so I asked her to describe the plot to me in as much detail as possible. Her description was exactly the plot in The Usual Suspects. She said it was probably coincidence so to prove it, I had her play the ending scene for Chocolate and then I played the ending on my laptop side by side and lo-and behold, it was identical. It's really disheartening to see Indian movies that are exact copies of Hollywood movies and don't even give credit to the original. People who have not seen the original will tout this as a wonderful movie but those of us who know better see it for what it is, a complete rip off of a wonderful movie.

Before I begin lashing out against this movie, I want to clarify that I am not fully against "Indianized" remakes of Hollywood movies - if done nicely and with some common sense, they can turn out to be decent affairs.

But Chocolate shamelessly treads the path of being a horrible movie that was blatantly taken piece by piece from a class act such as the Usual Suspects. Kaante had glimpses of other great Hollywood movies, but still had a "characer". Nothing here.

At the end of the movie, I was left wondering - was the director just an extra-ordinary idiot or was it just the outrageous murder of a great movie that left me pulling my own hair and cursing out loud.

Anil Kapoor - who is a brilliant actor, mind you - was totally wasted in the movie. Ditto for Irfan Khan - who has given some great performances in the past. Arshad Warsi is usually a delight to watch - but not here sirs! The only person for whom this piece of trash suits is Emran Hashmi - who was his terrible self in the movie.

Simply avoid this at all costs - you will be doing yourself a big favor.

2 minutes into the movie, and you know that it is a lift(No, i wont use the word "remake" or "adapted from" because that's what it is, a lift) of "The Usual Suspects". When there was a buzz about "Chocolate" during the build up and ever since we heard about the movie, i expected something else but as it turns out, it's a rehash of the 1995 Hollywood flick. I am OKAY with adaptations and inspirations but what irks me is that they don't even acknowledge the supposed adaptation. Come to think of it, there's no "adaptation" here, it's plain lifting. The end comes as no surprise to anyone who's seen the original. I was also reading Mr. Taran Adarsh's review and believe it or not, even he seemed to like the idea of adapting, he "adapted" from James Berardinelli's review of The Usual Suspects! ("The movie borrows from dozens of sources -- Hitchcock, Scorsese, the Coen brothers and just about every master of the genre, past or present". Check this line out in James' review of the original).

I wont comment on the dialogues and screenplay since there's nothing new here. Anil Kapoor, as the egoistic lawyer, was over the top a few times and his voice-over kind of sounded affected ( "With every case i became smart, smarter, smartest"...cheesy) . Irrfan was expectedly the best among the lot and makes the movie watchable, if only because of his presence.He easily overshadows Anil in their confrontation scenes. His glowering eyes and perfectly restrained performance is a treat to watch. Here's an actor i'll go miles to watch. Arshad Warsi does good in the limited scope that he has. The rest of the cast are alright.

At the end of it, "Chocolate" is not an effort worthy of appreciation.

Please turn off the logical/critical part of your brain and you'll be ready to enjoy the movie. Compared to usual Bollywood standards, this is a slick flick with respect to editing, cinematography, sound, etc.

Of course, the "Usual Suspects" story has been adapted to suit current events with plenty of vague references to Al Qaeda thrown in, but don't watch the movie for the story. Watch it to while away a lazy Sunday afternoon, when you can't go out, and don't feel like reading a book.

Irfaan Khan should have been cast as Rocker. Sunil Shetty didn't look scary enough. Arshad Warsi did much better than his past roles. Tanushree Dutta is certainly one to look out for. A few more acting classes might help. Lastly, Sushma Reddy's role as an almost caricature-ish sidekick to Krishna Pandit didn't do justice to her talents. She will certainly do better to pick meatier roles.