Reviews & Ratings for
ചാര്‍ലി (2015)

This is possibly the most quirky Indian film I've seen yet. I didn't love Charlie. I'll admit it. It was like Dulquer Salmaan was the ultimate manic pixie dream guy. That the heroine searches for the whole movie, and doesn't actually meet until the last five-ten minutes. So, I went in wanting the big romance, and it was -- in a way. I appreciate the role reversal, because I've seen this movie, and read this book the other way many a time.

She rents a room and the previous tenant has left all his very, very weird artsy stuff. She finds a portion of a graphic novel he drew, and has to find out what happened next. She looks for all the people that he drew in the pictures he left, and asks them about what happened next, and where he is. And she discovers a string of stories of this character do-gooding, and him not being able to stay in one place longer than a day, it seems. But she is also a free spirit -- on the run from an arranged marriage to the brother of her brother's fiance.

I think it was another example of me going in with expectations of Bangalore Days or OK Kanmani, and it is quite a different kettle of fish altogether. It's a good movie, but not great. Very quirky by Indian movie standards. I felt like we didn't really get to know Charlie, he really stayed a mystery up until the end. There was one absolutely incredible fantasy song sequence (he left a Polaroid selfie of himself in the apartment) .



The subtitles of the song basically were that he is like a mirage. I enjoyed Dulquer in the pirate get up and the flowing mundu skirt!

One of the final scenes was filmed at some real life festival (Find me in the crowd!) with these two rows of elephants facing each other and enormous crowds. It was a real WOW moment.

Evidently, Charlie's a big hit in Kerala, and Dhanush has already bought the Tamil remake rights. This is a film I could totally see Ranveer doing if it was remade in Hindi.