Early in Chhorii 2, Nushrratt Bharuccha’s Sakshi, a school teacher, is in the process of explaining the concept of ‘cavemen’ — their origin and evolution — to her young students. Given that a major part of the film, thereafter, will play out underground, with the action being dominated by an ‘aadi manav’, loosely translated in English as ‘original man’/’first man’, it is an intelligent and effective foreshadowing technique employed by director Vishal Furia. But while Chhorii 2 does traverse some intriguing territory in marrying quite a few novel horror tropes with the greater horrors that the human mind is capable of, it eventually descends into a hurried hodgepodge of mumbo-jumbo and banal balderdash.
When it came out four years ago, Chhorii, even though it may not have broken new ground in the genre, combined compelling storytelling with competent performances to leave a mark. A remake of a vastly superior Marathi original, Lapachhapi, also directed by Furia, it was a rare commercial Hindi film that blended superstition and supernatural, and set itself against the potent, mysterious background of rural India. The film worked well in marrying the psychological uncertainties of pregnancy with the eerie atmosphere of rural isolation, with the almost sky-high sugarcane plantations that the majority of its action took place in, contributing substantially to its spook factor. That it took on patriarchy, even while exposing the horrors of female infanticide, made it a worthy addition to the feminist folk horror genre, one which had found a strong, genre-defining contributor in Bulbbul, that released a year before Chhorii.
Chhorii 2 begins in the city where Sakshi, having escaped her predators — including her husband — lives with her seven-year-old daughter, Ishani. Ishani is a vivacious child, but as an after-effect of the tenuous events surrounding her birth — not to mention, a direct nod to Nicole Kidman’s The Others — the young girl is severely allergic to the sun. Nevertheless, Sakshi attempts to make life as normal as possible for her daughter, with more than a little help from Samar (played by Gashmeer Mahajani), the cop who rescued her from her dire circumstances seven years ago.
Chhorii 2 hits the ground running, with Sakshi once again finding herself in a situation where she has to protect her daughter from her old nemeses. That takes her back to the sugarcane fields and into a scenario that unleashes horrors that are both literal and psychological. That includes ghostly apparitions, ghastly rituals, ghouls popping out from pillars and walls and a new adversary for Sakshi in the form of Daasi Maa (Soha Ali Khan). Daasi Maa’s dichotomous place in that community — looking to save itself from extermination by offering young Ishani as ‘samarpan’ — is symbolised by her name. She is a conduit between the villagers and the all-powerful, gnarly half man-half creature that resides beyond the forbidden door, but like all other women there, she is also a slave, and hence, powerless. This duality could have made for an interesting study of the character, but the writing (Furia teams up with Anil Jagtap) is sparse and unidimensional. The character’s abrupt change of intent and action illustrates the fact that the makers were so taken in by the concept of one woman facing off against another that they didn’t think of developing Daasi Maa — or even Sakshi, for that matter — beyond a point.
While there are a few spooks and scares that make Chhorii 2 count, repetitiveness negates novelty after a point. Trapped underground and looking for her daughter — who is subjected to induced menstruation at age seven, an essential prerequisite for ‘samarpan’, with the film casually glossing over the child sexuality angle — Sakshi endlessly walks around in a labyrinth, which after a while, starts mirroring the state of the viewer’s mind. You are confused and eventually exhausted.
As far as atmospherics are concerned, Chhorii 2 attempts to channel Tumbbad to some extent, but the latter, as a whole, was a far more effective film that also used familiar genre tropes but broke fresh ground. Nevertheless, Chhorii 2’s evocative art design and Anshul Chobey’s camerawork, coupled with the chilling background score, does a bit to elevate the film.
Chhorii 2 ends in circumstances that leave the door (of the cave) ajar for another outing. Maybe next time don’t repeat the same story?
