So he has kind of given up on that as well. Then again, he became the PT teacher because he couldn’t succeed at anything else. Mahendra, better known as Montu (Rajkummar Rao) is a slacker of the first order who would rather eat samosas and slurp chai in the PT period, than coach children, which is his actual job. The principal of the school, who is like a second mother to him, outsources wedding arrangements to him to make money on the side. Everyone is okay with the arrangement, which is considered a way of life. The protagonist’s father is a respected lawyer so uses his influence to get a job for his slacker son. What the writers and the directors have also caught right is the jugadu nature of the people living in such small towns. The language, the production design, the costumes, are all bang on. You feel you’ve been transported to the place which overflows with milk and honey. The film is set in small-town Haryana and has the look and feel of the state. The screenplay, written by Luv Ranjan, Aseem Arrora, Zeishan Quadri, remains taut throughout.

The director and the actor have shown that given a chance, they can excel in comedy as well. Unlike heavy-duty movies like Shahid and Aligarh, which were serious in nature and were based on real-life instances, this one is a breezy comedy. The film marks the fifth collaboration between Rajkummar Rao and Hansal Mehta. It’s all thanks to Hansal Mehta, who has provided a new treatment to the age-old hare versus tortoise tale. And wonder of wonders, we see her striking a blow for women rights, gender equality and sports in the film. So it’s a pleasant surprise to see her cast in a positive role. That’s usually a clue that what you’d be watching would be a sexist, misogynistic comedy, with Nushrratt cast as a golddigger.

Chhalaang is produced by Luv Ranjan and has Nushrratt Bharuccha playing the heroine.

Chhalaang movie google drive