TL;DR –  A film that feels ripped right out of the 1990s that you would look back and muse that it has not aged well at all.     

Score – 2.5 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Review –

There are times when you sit down to watch a film and you revel in the chaos not knowing where it will go next. Then there are times that in the first five or so minutes you can get a rough sketch of each major plot point that is about to come. Well, today, unfortunately, we look at a film that is a latter with a story that feels like it would have been dated in the early 2000s let alone now.

So to set the scene, we open with Nirma (Mithila Palkar) who is a Mandarin translator and who is apparently named after a laundry powder brand. She is buying her first new car in her life but her number plate ads up to 11 rather than the preferred 9. On the way home, she takes her mother’s advice and goes to temple and has an attendant park her new car, and it should come as no surprise that there was no attendant and she just gave her keys to the guy that stole her brand new car. While she is at the police station she is told of someone who can help her, who goes by the name Artist (Abhay Deol), and she gets more than she bargains for.

One of the first issues that holds this film back in the characters, who are nearly all frustrating. I would call Nirma naïve but then I think that would be offensive to those people out there who are naïve. Her entire story is that she is too timid and trusting, so she needs a more forceful man to show her how to take risks … yer. It felt like maybe they were setting her up as this country girl being in the big city for the first time, or maybe I am reaching, whatever the case her main character trait for most of the film is being frustrating. Then there is Faiyaz Bhai (Vijay Raaz) who is a crime boss who they want to imply that he tortures people and more, but then they don’t have the conviction to actually show it so instead he has been run on a treadmill for a long time. Then there is Artist (Vijay Raaz) who is a conman and safecracker. Of all the cast, he has the most personality, but then that personality is being at best a bit of a dick and at worst being outright abusive.

The story of Chopsticks is basically taking Nirma and giving her almost an Eliza Doolittle treatment, but with her finding confidence rather than the right accent. In here there is a kernel of a good idea, but unfortunately, they really do nothing with it. To start with Nirma is apparently quite well off, in a good job, and lost the car through her own actions, so you are not really all that sympathetic with her plight. The other thing that does not help this is that the film can’t quite pick what tone they want to go with. Is this serious, is this farcical, who knows?

In the end, do we recommend Chopsticks? Honestly no, no we can’t. While it is a technically fine film, there is just no substance to the characters or story. By the end of the film, I felt more frustrated than anything else, and that is never a good sign.     

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Chopsticks
Directed by – Sachin Yardi
Written by – Sachin Yardi
Screenplay by – Rahul Awate
Music by – Pradeep Mukhopadhyay
Edited by – Unnikrishnan P.P
Production/Distribution Companies – Viniyard Productions & Netflix
Starring – Abhay Deol, Mithila Palkar, Vijay Raaz, Benafsha Soonawalla, Achint Kaur & Narendra Khatri
Rating – Australia: M