Chhalla Mud Ke Nahi Aaya Review: Punjabi Mania present before you the full movie review of recently released Punjabi movie titled ‘Chhalla Mud Ke Nahi Aaya’.

Cast: Amrinder Gill, Sargun Mehta, Sydney Eberwein, Binnu Dhillon, Karamjit Anmol, Sahib Singh, Baljinder Kaur, Manjit Kaur Aulakh, Gurcharan Arora.

Director: Amrinder Gill.

Music: Lowkey.

Genre: Drama.

Running Time: 140 minutes (U certified).

Chhalla Mud Ke Nahi Aaya Review

'Chhalla Mud Ke Nahi Aaya' is a stirring story of people who leave home for basic human needs of livelihood and shelter to never return back, people who are circumscribed by a never-say-die attitude even in the most daunting circumstances in life and people who are willing to sacrifice in order to retain what is theirs by right.

'Mareya bin swarg nahin milda' [You don't reach heaven without dying]

It is to earn money and the respect which comes with it that Challa (Amrinder Gill) leaves his village in Punjab to travel to Canada via Kolkata (erstwhile Calcutta) in 1905. Accompanied by Najjar (Karamjit Anmol) as a fellow newbie, the duo join more experienced colleagues to work as labourers at a saw mill.

Challa and Najjar form an instant bond with each other taking onus of most of the comic element in the movie. Been there and done that on multiple occasions in the past with respect to comedy, Gill and Anmol become the lifeline for the group which had become used to leading a meloncholic life due to the burdens of working and living away from their family members.

Having made his directorial debut in Chhalla Mud Ke Nahi Aaya, Gill's decision of taking such a massive career decision with a subject as challenging as this one generates mixed output across divisions. While some sequences of Chhalla Mud Ke Nahi Aaya aid in making the movie of a level which it must have intended to touch originally, the others leave you expecting more in order for justice to happen to this story.

For starters, Gill's collaboration with DOP Dan Dumouchel yields fruits for Chhalla Mud Ke Nahi Aaya. The camera work of the movie is applaudable depicting both Punjab and Canada in the first decade of 1900s.

Gill's aesthetic vision remains pleasing enough throughout the movie to literally take you in that era. An out of the blue refreshing background music by Lowkey further enhances the joy of watching a period drama. Costumes, a vital element for a period movie, are also designed very aptly by Nitasha Bhateja and Rashim Nanda. Costumes portraying both rich and poor people of Punjab and Canada in the most suitable manner is quite an achievement for experienced designers in Bhateja and Nanda.

That being said, it is the writing which needed to be more tightly-knit in order for these aforementioned components to come together as victorious. While there's little wrong with Amberdeep Singh's script which covers a heroic and earnest story of people with an untiring approach towards employment in a bid to earn money, it is Amberdeep's screenplay which plays spoilsport for one and all.

In Chhalla Mud Ke Nahi Aaya, Amberdeep excels in writing titular characters who are way ahead of their times with their respective thought-processes. Although in a guest appearance, even Jeeto (Sargun Mehta) leaves an impression with her progressiveness. Needless to say, Challa is no different with his overall philosophy towards life.

However, the glue needed to keep all the aforementioned components intact is both ineffective and confused. Hence, it is the lack of an allied out-turn which hurts Chhalla Mud Ke Nahi Aaya more than anything else.

Coming to the music of the film, all the songs like the background score have been composed by Lowkey - A new collaboration for Amrinder Gill! (Yes, they have worked on a single track before). The title track of the film is our pick from the lot. 

Not a surprise by any means, Gill emerges as the pick of the actors whilst fighting for the right in the most rightful manner. Sydney Eberwein, who plays Bella (housemaid at Challa's boss' home), brings an unanticipated freshness to the movie. While Gill's chemistry with his female co-stars is not unknown to anyone, a seasoned campaigner in Gill manages to accomplish the same effortlessly with Eberwein as well. Notwithstanding a language barrier, Gill and Eberwein's adorable chemistry emerges as a boon for Chhalla Mud Ke Nahi Aaya.

When all's said and done, Chhalla Mud Ke Nahi Aaya could have been much much better had the bug of mediocre writing not bitten it. A movie capable of being remembered for addressing issues such as racism, pay parity, equal rights, lack of education and patriarchy suffers due to scantiness of cohesion. However, the NRIs living outiside India will connect with the film in a lot better way and will be able to understand the struggles and sacrificies their forefathers made in order for them to lead a life they are living today in western world countries.