Chocolate: Deep Dark Secrets

The best part of this movie i the way it captures London in winter...not just the buildings but the spirit manages to enter the frame !! The movie is inspired from usual suspects with the hot scene of basic instinct thrown in for good measure... It is difficult to believe 20 billion pounds being transferred with no escort cars !!! but this movie wants you to believe that apart from a lot of stories with holes more than any pound of swiss cheese will have !!! Tanushree Dutta sure has it to make it big., hope she makes some good career choices...Irrfan, Arshad, Emraan( for a change no kisses !!) all OK, Anil simply doesn't know what over the top acting is all about... Sushma makes a debut rather late in her career and unless many of her scenes are in editing floor, it is rather a sad debut... The redeeming feature is the ending where it differs from usual suspects and the ending is actually a happy one at that !! 3 out of 5...

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.

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.

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.

Newcomer director Vivek Agnihotri took the plunge of directly ripping-off the Hollywood hit 'Usual Suspects' in Bollywood as the lame excuse for a movie called 'Chocolate'.

Nothing is in the right place in this movie. Be it acting, storytelling, hard-hitting dialogues or even the screenplay. No loose ends are tied in the end. No explanations are provided for the actions of the characters. We never get to know why do these five friends (Irfan Khan, Suniel Shetty, Emraan Hashmi, Arshad Warsi and Tanushree Dutta) keep committing one crime after another. No explanations have been provided for the eccentricities of the lawyer, Krish Pundit (played by Anil Kapoor). Why does the character of Monsoon Iyer (played by Sushma Reddy) acts like Anil Kapoor's Personal Assistant if she is a crime reporter? And Krish Pundit says that he doesn't care if the characters of Irfan Khan and Tanushree Dutta are guilty or innocent. Still, he wants them to tell him the true story linking them to the boat incident and truck robbery! After all, he is their lawyer and he's bound to fight for their cause even if they're lying to him or not saying anything at all.

Music is pleasing to the ears. 'Mummy ko nahi hai pata' and 'halka halka' are the picks of the lot. Editing could've been sharper.Probably the editor was sleeping throughout the whole movie. Cinematography is awesome. If 'Chocolate' scores in any department it would be in the cinematography department as the beauty of London and its winter had been captured to the fullest. Vivek Agnihotri should be applauded for attempting something different but the problem lies in his execution. He doesn't know how to tell a story.

'Chocolate' is the worst remake of 'Usual Suspects' which was a success at the box-office and was declared a classic. I would recommend that you rather borrow the DVD of 'Usual Suspects' instead.