Choked review: Anurag Kashyap’s critical criticism is never in danger of being blocked

THROW: Saiyami Kher, Roshan Mathew, Amruta Subhash, Rajshri Deshpande

DIRECTOR: Anurag Kashyap

EVALUATION: 4 stars (out of 5)

Money speaks well Muffled – Paisa Bolta Hai, an original Netflix film directed by Anurag Kashyap. He does it with a forked tongue. It promises deliverance while obscuring the constant growls that warn of impending chaos. He dances, sings and weaves circles around the residents of a four-story building in Mumbai. Silver goes up and down its stairs in stuffed suitcases as well as the top and bottom of a kitchen drain pipe in clear poly bags.

The director, based on a script by Nihit Bhave, develops a sneaky and suspenseful drama which, in addition to a fictional vision of lives turned upside down by demonetization, presents the portrait of a young couple whose marriage is put strained by money-related crises.

The troubled musician Sushant (Roshan Mathew) is unemployed and in debt. Sarita (Saiyami Kher), a cooperative cashier, bears the entire financial burden for the family of three, which includes their son Sameer (Parthveer Shukla).

The fascinating story of secrets and lies centers on characters who sneak in and out of the dark. They dodge the harsh gaze of the spotlights and seek the comfort of the shadows while the small world contained in a residential block and its middle-class inhabitants is hammered by developments that trigger panic and pandemonium.

Director of photography Sylvester Fonseca captures the insides of the building, the nooks and crannies of Sarita and Sushant’s house, with a keen eye that improves the seamless integration of these spaces with the story. When humans are reduced to snooping around for money, executives must necessarily achieve the realism of a “kitchen sink”. The camera is up to the challenge.

In describing how extraordinary measures impact the lives of ordinary people, Strangled effectively summons soft and fluffy methods. Money is the only thing that matters here. Sarita and other women from the colony meet periodically for kitty parties where they play bingo and chat. One of these conversations revolves around the private assistant to the shady politician who, in the words of the talkative Neeta (Rajshri Deshpande), sneaks in and out of the top floor apartment like a fox.

In a first scene, Sushant, angry to be deprived of his share of the spoils of a failed commercial partnership, is close to raining blows on his star fruit friend Dinesh (Uday Nene), who lives on the ground floor with his wife Anju (Vaishnavi RP). In a later sequence, Sushant and Sarita engage in a slang match over the latter’s follies over an expensive wedding gift.

That aside, and this is a crucial part of the story, Sushant owes money to Reddy (Upendra Limaye), owner of a restaurant where he worked as a guitarist. The latter pressured Sarita to repay the debt. At the end of her tether, the woman, one night, finds the drain hose under her kitchen sink spitting out carefully wrapped bundles of banknotes.

Strangled it was money, greed, a broken financial system, corrupt politicians and the one who was pulled into the dark – the demonetization of November 8, 2016 – that caused trouble for the banks and their confused customers, especially for the most vulnerable among them.

The scenario presents the effect of demonetization in two ways. One through the bearing he has on Sharvari (Amruta Subhash), the lady of the first floor apartment. She, a single mother preparing for her daughter’s wedding, is surprised. The wedding contractor and caterers must be paid, but all his money is now worthless.

Seeing her desperate, Sushant says: “Dekhna, sara black money nikalke aeyega abb. “Sarita and Sharvari can only look at him in disbelief. Sushant, who does not make any money and therefore has nothing at stake, runs out of the building and joins the other inhabitants of the colony in a robust celebration song for welcome demonetization.

Sarita can’t afford to be this enthusiastic. Her life and her bank are completely disorganized: long queues outside the bank, longer working hours and total confusion over the exchange of old bank notes while her husband continues to spend her time playing Candy Crush and Carom.

Demonetization also manifests in serpentine queues and frayed temperaments outside the shores. An elderly woman asks Sarita to give her more money than she can get. I live alone and cannot visit the bank every day, begs the customer. “Bank mein paise milte hain, sympathy nahi. Unke haath jodiye jinko vote diya tha», Replies Sarita, dripping with sarcasm.

Strangled is not a typically pugnacious film by Anurag Kashyap. It offers a moderate critique of an abrupt and disruptive administrative act that created more problems than it solved, roughly reflecting the way Sarita discovered the hiding place of the kitchen sink shakes her equations. with her husband. It delivers provocative oscillations in a measured way and only from the point of view of the characters.

Dirty money takes on a literal connotation in Strangled. The choking phenomenon too. It’s not just the kitchen drain that chokes and produces a windfall. Sushant sinks into her own hollow in the face of a lack of opportunity and a growing feeling of defeat.

Failure is also a burden for Sarita, and it relates to her singing ambitions. She has to deal with a “strangulation” which is very difficult for her to live with. In the present, life is a daily routine for her. The train ride to and from the bank, shopping for vegetables and groceries on the way home, and doing household chores makes it heavy. Demonetization only aggravates matter. Reddy enters the scene and tries to make Sarita accept a wacky deal.

Strangled throws a few sharp blows on the myth of the muscular leadership proposed while the nation is wading economically and socially. But the film records the wildest dismantling of the last one – a musical parody at the end of the credits of a mixture of Hindi nursery rhymes (Akkar bakkar Bombay bo, Poshampa bhai poshampa, Naani teri morni ko mor le gaye, Titli uddi udd na saki) which bears the combative signature Anurag Kashyap.

The two main performances are incredibly fluid. Saiyami Kher expands a volunteer woman who is immediately identifiable. Roshan Mathew, in his first Hindi film, gives the husband, a man struggling with inadequacies, the right mix of carefree and vulnerable.

Amruta Subhash as Sharvari careworn but fiery, Rajshri Deshpande in a lively cameo because the curious neighbor and Uday Nene are always on the money.

Muffled – Paisa Bolta Hai is never in danger of getting blocked. It vibrates with a fluid but temperate energy.