Choked - Yeh Movie Bolta Hai

Movie: Choked: Paisa Bolta Hai

Cast: Saiyami Kher, Roshan Mathew, Amruta Subhash

Rating: 4/5

Everything is choked in life unless you have Money. Money gives you a voice.

The movie introduces us to our protagonist Sarita who is a bank employee and undertakes the entire responsibility of the household right from earning for the family to taking care of the house and their son. Her husband Sushant is jobless and debt-ridden with no contribution towards the household. An incident in the past changes their lives forever. This has lead to a broken relationship with them bickering and fighting all the time.

We are then introduced to their helpful but gossiping neighbor Sharvari, another neighbor Dinesh and their mysterious neighbor, a politician's PA who stacks bundles of money in the drainage pipe. The colony is a reflection of our society where people seem friendly but are always trying to get each other in trouble.

Then one night while cleaning the choked kitchen sink pipe, Sarita discovers packets of cash. The money brings excitement to her dull life and hope for a better life. She starts using the cash to resolve her money related problems. Every night she waits greedily for the wades of cash to appear in her choked pipe. But then one day demonetization happens and the cash stops coming in. Also, the money with her becomes garbage all of a sudden. While her husband rejoices this move she is shattered.

The story then focuses on the aftermath of demonetization on people, on our system, on media ,and Sarita and her family. Sarita is pushed back to her old life with the additional workload at work and people everywhere demanding favors from her as a bank employee.  A few days later the money starts appearing again in her choked pipe. This shows how black money hoarders found a way to work around the system and save their money despite demonetization. Sarita’s life changes again and then it shows where Sarita’s greed takes her.

The movie highlights the various aspects of demonetization through Sarita’s story. It also highlights various aspects of human behaviors like greed, hypocrisy ,and self-realization.

Anurag Kashyap is at the top of his game. From the beginning, he immerses us into the world of Sarita. He involves us in her everyday life by repeatedly using some scenes like latching the door, turning off the lights, travelling by train, buying vegetables, returning from work exhausted, and finding the house in a mess. He brings life into the characters and you can relate to each one of them. His movies are generally hard hitting and in your face but here he has brought out all the messages in a much subtle manner.

The cinematography by Sylvester Fonseca is brilliant and keeps the audience engaged throughout. The zoom into the character’s face (close-up shots) adds emotions to the characters and the point of view shots help the audience connect with the characters and understand their perspective.

The screenplay by Nihit Bhave sets up the movie beautifully. The story-line of Sarita and Sushant is very well thought out. But there are some unnecessary plots in the story especially the one with the Reddy story-line was quite weak and unnecessary. The climax of the movie also seemed a little hurried and too convenient. The dialogues in the movie carry a lot of impact.They are tight, funny and convey a lot of meaning.

Saiyami Kher gives a memorable performance as the vulnerable and unhappy Sarita. Roshan Matthew gives a controlled performance and never goes over the top with his frustrated and angry scenes. As usual, Amruta Subhash is  brilliant as Sarita's confidante and neighbor. Only Upendra Limaye is a total misfit as Reddy with his poor South Indian accent.

The background score needs a special mention here. It is definitely influenced by Antonio Sanchez’s drum play as the background score in Birdman. It adds tension and highlights special scenes keeping you engaged throughout.

The movie is a reflection of our society as a whole. It holds a mirror to our face and leaves us to introspect.

In Depth Analysis of Choked

 **Read further at your own risk. SPOILERS AHEAD**

The movie starts with a shot of money being kept in plastic pouches and then placed in a drainage pipe of an ordinary society in Mumbai. That shot then transitions into the dreams of Sarita who is the tenant in the below household. We are then taken into the lives of Sarita and Sushant. Their broken dreams have led to a broken relationship. Their strained relationship is beautifully depicted in scenes where they communicate with each other through their son and when they try to wake their son up from his sleep to satisfy their egos.

The story then takes us to an incident in Sarita’s past where she chokes on stage and fails to sing in a singing reality show. This incident changes her personality completely and still haunts her. Under the guilt of their failed dreams, she tries to make amends by taking up all the responsibilities of the family on her shoulders so that her husband can pursue his dreams. In this process, she grows frustrated and exhausted and the lack of money in the household further aggravates their problems.

The camera work using only a simple tube light as a source of light beautifully captures the environment in which the characters are living.

With the latching of the door and turning off the lights in the night, the audience is taken into Sarita’s personal world. Here the audience is made to connect with her emotions and dreams. The camera shot from within the fridge on Sarita’s face helps the audience connect with her traumatic past emotionally. Then they show the greed and happiness on Sarita’s face when she begins to find pouches of cash in her choked drain.

Sarita uses this money to repay Sushant’s debts to a person named Reddy. This enrages Sushant as it hurts his male ego but still shows no will to earn for his family. It shows what no work does to a person and how he loses all will to work.

With the money flowing in, Sarita’s personality changes into a confident independent woman. Her choking in the past scarred her personality, while here a choke in her sinkhole has revived her personality.

Then one night the money pouches don't appear in the drain and we see huge suitcases being piled up in a car and driven away. The next day our PM announces demonetization and Sarita's life turns upside down as all her new earned wealth becomes worthless. While her husband who does not earn a single penny is seen celebrating with a dance as if this will revive his career. Also, we see how the real hoarders of black money have made arrangements in advance. 

Then the movie narrative highlights the effects of demonetization on aam janta. We see how the banking system was not ready to handle such an unprecedented situation through Sarita’s perspective. She faces huge work pressure and then comes back exhausted to a messy house. We hear in the background the news channels praising the demonetization move and how it has ended terrorism and black money issue with a single stroke. People are shown having hope that this move will end the black money problem in our country.

But as days pass by, we see that demonetization has created more problems than solutions. Sarita's neighbor Tai is shown having a cash crunch for her daughter’s wedding preparations and persuades Sarita to find some way to get her new cash. People are shown struggling to deposit their hard-earned money in the bank and this does not even spare the elderly people. The movie also highlights through the character of Reddy that the powerful people always find a way around the system and channel their black money through corrupt banking employees or by other means. As the movie title says "Paisa bolta hai", money is what makes things happen in our system.

Then as Sarita is worried about depositing the old notes, she again notices that her sinkhole is overflowing with pouches of money with new legal notes. This shows that how the powerful always find a way to channel their money and the innocent tax-paying citizens are the one suffering standing in long queues outside the bank. 

Sarita again starts spending the money she is getting from the choked sink hole to transform her house as per taste. Every night she starts waiting in front of the sinkhole for the money with greed in her eyes. She even starts locking the door of the kitchen so that no one can interfere with her new dream world.

In the movie, it is shown that it is not only Sarita who is greedy for money but everyone around her is shown wanting easy access to money and these same people pass judgment about other people hoarding black money. This is shown through the scenes where her other neighbors steal money from the same house given the opportunity.

But as an audience, we feel for the character of Sarita and we actually rejoice that she now access to this black money and finally she can enjoy her life the way she intends to.

In a poignant scene, Sushant is shown taking out money from Sarita's purse to pay the dhobi. Her phone beeps and he checks it and then looks at his reflection in the mirror. This forces him to introspect and triggers a change in him. He gains respect for his wife and goes out to find work for a living.

Then in a bank robbery, Sarita loses all the money she had collected from the choked sink. This shows that money is just temporary. Sarita again goes into a mental abyss after losing all of her money and choking when it mattered most but this time her husband gives her support and even bails her out in front of the IT department by showing them the source of the black money.

At the ending, Sushant gets a letter informing them that they have been rewarded with 10% of the total amount of black money recovered because of their help. When Sarita asks the amount the movie ends leaving it to the audience's interpretation. If the IT department honestly disclosed the real amount or paid them a token amount to show their honesty is left for us to decide.

The choked pipe represents the system of our country choked with black money. The movie also shows that black money cannot be eradicated by replacing the entire pipe (demonetization). With the new pipe in place, only some beneficiaries will change but the powerful will always stay in power to choke the system. Human greed will always take precedence over humanity, and the day this reverses is the day when the pipe will not be choked anymore.