Chandu Champion is the latest Hindi film which has officially released in theaters on June 14, 2024. This biographical drama film is based on the life of the first Indian Paralympic Gold Medalist Muralikant Petkar. The screentime of this is around 2 hours 23 minutes.
Story: The story starts from 1950’s Sangli, Maharashtra where a boy Kartik Aaryan aka Chandu dreams of winning the Gold Medal in the Olympics. For that dream, he first learns wrestling in his village. As he grows up, he joins the Indian Army and played boxing for the nation. During India-Pakistan war in 1965, he got shot by 9 bullets which paralyzed him. Despite issues and troubles, he won Gold Medal In Paralympic Games in Swimming in 1974 in Germany. For his unwavering contribution to the nation, he was conferred Padma Shri by Government Of India. There are lot more things that you must watch only in theaters.
In this film, Vijay Raaz essayed the role of Tiger Ali who coached Chandu in this movie, who has done a great job. This film also features Bhuvan Arora, Yashpal Sharma, Rajpal Yadav, Shreyas Talpade aka Inspector Sachin Kamble, Sonali Kulkarni aka Journalist and many others.
Bollywood Crazies Opinion: The story is extra-ordinary and the screenplay makes it even bigger. I personally didn’t had a believe that Kartik will able to pull it off but yes he did with an ease. There are moments, where I felt that he is overdoing the character but mostly he lived the role as per the wish of the director. I think, Kartik given justice to the main role and did gave a fabulous performance. The Marathi touch is missing from Kartik to some extent, else I have no issues with him at all. The moment where I felt like crying, that particular scene comes in the second half. In a scene, Chandu just recovered from the Military hospital and wants to return to his home but his family says they can’t afford his treatment or take care of him. In the next shot, his mother, father and elder brother leaves him in tears, and he was so helpless that all he can do is wave hands to them. That scene made me cry for few minutes as mother and son bonds are so strong that you can feel the whole scene. The climax swimming scene is also great. I also liked the army action sequences which has been shot amazingly. There were continuous long action shots, which made me realize somewhat of Dunkirk film (2017). I felt like I was on ground zero at that time. The production value is amazing and hefty amount of money has been spent on this big flix. There are hardly any songs and they don’t give much meaning to the film. The background music is effective and does play a good role to enhance the story. I must tell you, this is a big film made for only cinemas and if you watch it on TV or OTT later, you will regret it for sure. In terms of performance, Vijay Raaz has outshined Kartik Aaryan in many scenes. Few comedy scenes from Rajpal Yadav did make me happy. The first half of this film is smooth entertainer and the second half is a bit slow but the makers didn’t loose a grip on this lengthy film. Making an era of 1950’s or 60’s is not easy but the makers have pulled it off nicely. Only drawback I felt, i didn’t find Kartik a true Marathi boy and that’s the only small problem I felt. He could have spoken more Marathi in this movie.
This film has been co-written and directed by Kabir Khan. It has also co-written by Sumit Arora and Sudipto Sarkar. It have been produced by Sajid Nadiadwala and Kabir Khan. The cinematography has been handled by Sudeep Chatterjee and the editing work done by Nitin Baid. The music in this film given by Pritam and the background score done by Julius Packiam.
Chandu Champion movie budget hasn’t been revealed but it could reportedly be around 138 to 140 crores maximum.
Altogether, Chandu Champion is a must watch film for the family audiences. It’s a clean family entertainer.
Last Word: Watch it for Vijay Raaz, Kartik, Rajpal Yadav, cinematography and direction.
Bollywood Crazies Ratings: Chandu Champion Review- 4 stars out of 5 stars.
