Review: ‘Chhaava,’ starring Vicky Kaushal, Rashmika Mandanna and Akshaye Khanna

February 26, 2025

by Carla Hay

“Chhaava”

Directed by Laxman Utekar

Hindi with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in India (mostly in the Delhi area) in 1680, the action film “Chhaava” (based on the novel of the same name) features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: Sambhaji Maharaj, the second ruler of the Maratha Empire, battles against, the Mughal Emperor.

Culture Audience: “Chhaava” will appeal mainly to people who want to see an extremely violent, obnoxiously loud and mindless film.

“Chhaava” is an epic war film in all the wrong ways. This turgid 161-minute film has exploitative displays of epic ultra-violence. The movie’s screenplay and performances are epic disappointments. And this entire misguided film is an epic repetitive bore.

Directed by Laxman Utekar, “Chhaava” (which means “lion cub” in Hindi) was co-written by Utekar, Rishi Virmani, Kaustubh Savarkar, Unman Bankar and Omkar Mahajan. It’s usually not a good sign when a movie has at least five credited screenwriters. “Chhaava” looks like it was written by a committee that couldn’t come up with any original ideas or interesting dialogue. It’s just scene after scene of stereotypes showing gory violent fights and a “hero” who’s battling an evil “oppressor.”

The characters in “Chhaava” (which takes place in India in 1680, mostly in the Delhi area) are based on real historical people, but the movie makes them look like cartoonish characters. This movie has a simple plot that is dragged out with too many unnecessary scenes that are loud, soulless spectacles. The movie is more interested in showing how gory it can get in scenes showing murders and toture than it’s interested in telling a good story,

The essential story is a power struggle between two groups of people: (1) supporters of the Mughal Empire, the oppressive establishment in control, and (2) supporters of the Maratha resistance movement. Emperor Aurangzeb (played by Akshaye Khanna) of the Mughal Empire wants to destroy his biggest enemy: Sambhaji Maharaj (played by Vicky Kaushal), who has inherited the role of leader of the Maratha resistance after the death of Sambhaji’s father Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.

Within these two groups are other power struggles. Some people in the Maratha resistance would rather have Sambhaji’s stepbrother Chhatrapati Rajaram Maharaj (played by Varun Buddhadev) as the leader. Meanwhile, Emperor Aurangzeb has a rebellious prince son named Mirza Muhammad Akbar (played by Neil Bhoopalam), who might or might not defect to the enemy’s side. Sambhaji’s wife Yesubai Bhonsale (played by Rashmika Mandanna) has a predictable “worried wife at home” role.

Other characters in the story are Rajaram’s mother/Sambhaji’s stepmother Soyarabai (played by Divya Dutta), who is loyal to her son; Zinat-un-Nissa Begum (played by Diana Penty), the estranged sister of Mirza Akbar; Kavi Kalash (played by Vineet Kumar Singh), who is Aurangzeb’s trusted advisor; and Santaji Ghorpade (played by Ankit Anil Sharma) and Dhanaji Jadhav (played by Shubhankar Ekbote), who are loyal fighters for Sambhaji. There are double-crosses and dirty dealers between nearly all of these characters.

Even though “Chhaava” benefits from having above-average cinematography, production design and costume design, the movie’s fight scenes become tedious to watch after a while. And although Kaushal puts in an effort to show relatable human emotions as Sambhaji, “Chhaava” doesn’t let the characters in the movie really be fully relatable human beings. They are written more like video game characters in service of gruesome and excessive violence. Violence is expected in movies about war, but the way the violence is staged in this bombastic movie is just annoying to watch when the characters have hollow personalities.

Yash Raj Films released “Chhaava” in U.S. cinemas on February 14, 2025, the same day that the movie was released in India.