Chaal Jeevi Laiye is a Gujarati film making waves ever since it released on February 1. This is a feel-good family film with a few lessons on the importance of communication, Generation gap and work-life balance thrown in. The film has some lovely moments and raises some pertinent points. Also, the pre-climax and climax is very touching and takes the film many notches higher. The twist in the tale might be predictable but still works. On the flipside, the film is quite over-the-top in many scenes. A few developments are unconvincing and even silly. More than half of the film has been shot in Uttarakhand and the makers have used too many tourism shots as filler clips. One can see that the long tourism-friendly shot is filmed when its sunny and in the immediate shot after, the weather is cloudy and it seems so embarrassing. So if you are able to overlook these glitches for the message and emotional and funny quotient, do give this film a try. Not to forget, the performances are also quite good. Siddharth Randeria, the badshah of Gujarati cinema and drama, shockingly tries too hard to be funny in the beginning and fails. But he gets better as the film progresses. He shines in the emotional scenes. One of his best scenes is when a tea stall owner, whom he last met 20 years ago, recognizes him. Yash Soni is decent. Aarohi is charming and gives a first rate performance. She should have avoided over-repeating ‘OMG’ at regular intervals though. A fine effort, all in all, and here’s hoping Chaal Jeevi Laiye gets a Hindi remake soon! It’s high time Bollywood gets a fine family drama like this one!
My rating – *** ½ out of 5!