‘Chhalaang’ Trailer: What a leap for Hansal Mehta!

Hansal Mehta’s films are anything but soft and gentle. His propensity for harsh home  truths  is about to change. Chhalaang seems to be his breeziest show to date, slyly  romantic slightly mushy, fully benevolent.

The dark edges and the sunless interiors  of Hansal’s celebrated  bio-pics are  for now forgotten as we  meet  the small town sports teacher Rajkummar Rao who falls for  the  new ‘computer’ teacher played by Nushrratt Bharuccha who looks lovely.

The hero is indolent insolent work shirker. The heroine is sharp and saucy.

“Daru pilayega?” she challenges our lazy sports teacher who when woken by his mother to attend to his educational duties as  a sports teacher mumbles, “I don’t  want children  to spend their time in recreational activities. That’s why I’m bunking.”

There is an outstanding array of supporting players all pitching towards  giving the  presentation a supple synergy, actors like Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Saurabh Shukla, Satish Kaushik and Ila Arun who never fail to bring something special to the table.

But it’s the gentleness of the presentation that caught my attention in the trailer.  From Chhal  in 2002 …what a Chhalaang  for Hansal Mehta.  He describes it as ‘Hansal 3: 0’.

Chhalaang has  3  ‘a’s  in the titles,  the hero  Rajkummar Rao has 2 ‘m’s  in his name , and the  heroine Nushrratt Bharuccha has 2 ‘r’s  2 ‘t’s  and 2 ‘c’s in her name. Surely that must mean something.