Emraan Hashmi Archives

Review: ‘Haq’ (2025), starring Yami Gautam Dhar, Emraan Hashmi, Sheeba Chaddha and Vartika Singh

November 9, 2025

by Carla Hay

Yami Gautam Dhar in “Haq” (Photo courtesy of Junglee Pictures)

“Haq” (2025)

Directed by Suparn Verma

Hindi with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in India, from 1967 to 1985, the dramatic film “Haq” (based on true events) features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: After a woman’s attorney husband leaves her and their three kids to start a new life with his second wife, he uses his Muslim religion to refuse to pay alimony and child support, and she takes him to court, in a case that drags on for 10 years.

Culture Audience: “Haq” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, divorce dramas, and stories about plaintiffs with perseverance in legal cases.

Emraan Hashmi in “Haq” (Photo courtesy of Junglee Pictures)

“Haq” is a divorce drama that drags on for a little too long (136 minutes), but it’s worth watching for its meaningful depiction of a real-life landmark case of an Indian woman fighting for her rights to alimony and child support. Her ex-husband (an attorney) used his Muslim religion as an excuse not to pay. Their legal battle went on for 10 years and went all the way the Indian Supreme Court.

Directed by Suparn Verma and written by Reshu Nath, “Faq” has a screenplay adapted from Jigna Vora’s non-fiction book “Bano: Bharat Ki Beti.” The movie’s presents the story in a fairly straightforward matter. The main flaw in the film is that it tends to get repetitive in showing the courtroom battles, which are well-acted but somewhat predictable in how they fit into the story.

“Faq” takes place from 1967 to 1985. The movie is told in chronological order, except for the beginning of the film, which takes place in New Delhi in 1985. In this opening scene, attorney Bela Jain (played by Sheeba Chaddha) tells in voiceover narration how she met Shazia Bano (played by Yami Gautam Dhar), who became her plaintiff client in this divorce case. A flashback shows how they first met. When Bela asks her why Shazia is filing this lawsuit against Shazia’s ex-husband Abbas, Shazia replies: “You may not lot like my response, but I was deeply in love with Abbas.”

The movie then flashes back to 1967, when Abbas (played by Emraan Hashmi) and Shazia had a whirlwind courtship and wedding. During their marriage, the couple had three children together: son Qamran (the eldest child), daughter Kaneez (the middle child) and son Bilal (the youngest child). The children are portrayed by different cast members during various age stages.

Qamran from ages 10 to 12 years old is portrayed by Rudra Chaudhary. Qamran from the ages of 14 to 16 years old is depicted by Yatharth. Kaneez from the ages of 4 to 6 is portrayed by Vedika. Kaneez from the ages of 7 to 9 years old is depicted by Kiara Sabharwal. Kaneez from the ages of 11 to 13 years old is portrayed by Kiri Prakash Kaur. Bilal from the ages of 7 to 9 years old is depicted by Swar Vinayak Singh.

Shazia thought that they had a happy marriage until one day, sometime in the early 1970s, Abbas tells her that he’s taking a second wife—widow named Saira (played by Vartika Singh)—as a marriage of convenience because his mother needs to pay off a debt to Saira’s father.

Shazia is angry and shocked, but she can’t stop Abbas from going through with this bigamist marriage. Saira is younger than Shazia and looks like a beauty queen. Naturally, Shazia feels jealous and threatened by Saira, who is clearly in love with Abbas. As time goes on, it becomes obvious that Abbas is in love with Saira too.

One day, Shazia finds out the awful truth when Saira tells her that Abbas and Saira were in love and dating each other before Abbas met Shazia. Saira married another man in an arranged marriage where Saira’s first husband abused her. Abbas married Shazia on the rebound. Saira tells Shazia: “You are his first wife but not his first love.”

A year into this bigamy arrangement, Saira is pregnant, and Abbas treats Shazia like an inferior wife and barely interacts with their children. Shazia (who is a homemaker) doesn’t want to divorce Abbas, even though it’s a miserable marriage, because she still loves him. However, Abbas makes the decision to divorce her by invoking triple talaq (which means “instant divorce”), a Muslim practice where a husband can divorce his wife by saying the word “talaq” (divorce) three times consecutively.

Abbas stops paying alimony and child support, but he still feels entitled to see the three children he has with Shaiza whenever he wants. In 1975, against the advice of almost everyone around her, Shaiza files a legal complaint against Abbas to get child support and alimony. Abbas, who acts as his own attorney, uses a defense argument that he doesn’t have to pay because it’s against his Muslim religion, which teaches that husbands have more rights than wives in a divorce.

The rest of “Haq” shows the 10-year legal battle between Shaiza and Abbas. Bela is the lead attorney/advocate representing Shaiza, but Bela gets assistance from her attorney/advocate subordinate Faraaz Ansari (played by Aseem Hattangady), who makes court appearances with Bela. Even though Shaiza becomes a shunned outsider in her community, she gets unwavering and loyal support from her widower father Maulvi Basheer (played by Danish Husain), who presumably also financially supports her during her ordeal. “

“Haq” is a solidly made made movie that doesn’t overdo the melodrama and doesn’t have an overbearing music score, which is the way this type of movie would usually be made. The emotional moments are realistically depicted by the cast members. The performances are very good overall in this movie that capably demonstrates a history lesson for women’s rights in India.

Junglee Pictures released “Haq” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on November 7, 2025.

Review: ‘They Call Him OG,’ starring Pawan Kalyan, Emraan Hashmi, Priyanka Mohan, Arjun Das, Sriya Reddy and Prakash Raj

September 26, 2025

by Carla Hay

“They Call Him OG”

Directed by Sujeeth

Telugu and Marathi with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in India and briefly in Japan, in 1993 (with flashbacks to 1970), the action film “They Call Him OG” features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A vigilante, who trained as a samurai fighter when he was a boy, get caught up in a rivalry between his mentor/father figure and a gang leader.

Culture Audience: “They Call Him OG” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and action movies that are loud and flashy but ultimately have dull storytelling.

Emraan Hashmi in “They Call Him OG” (Photo courtesy of Prathyangira Cinemas)

“They Call Him OG” is just another mindless action flick with a derivative plot about crime, revenge and family turmoil. This tedious movie clumsily mishandles its cross-cultural storyline about an Indian vigilante who trained at a Japanese samurai dojo. There are absolutely no surprises in “They Call Him OG,” which has hammy acting, cringeworthy dialogue and hollow characters.

Written and directed by Sujeeth, “They Call Him OG” has a “vigilante versus criminals” story that’s been done so many times before in action films. “They Call Him OG” has rushed and jumbled introductory scenes that take place in 1970, in Japan’s capital city of Tokyo. A samurai dojo is invaded by yakuza gangsters, who kill all the students, except for one, who manages to escape on a ship to Bombay.

This student is an orphaned Indian boy who’s about 6 to 7 years old. His name is Ojas Gambheera (also known as OG), who is later given the samurai name Master Orochi Genshin. On the ship with OG are two businessmen from Bombay: Satyanarayana Roy Nandan also known as Satya Dada (played by Prakash Raj) and Vardhaman Mirajkar (played by Tej Sapru), who each goes down very different paths in life.

OG saves the lives of Satya Dada and Vardhaman when OG kills a group of invading pirates who wanted to steal the gold that was on the ship. Satya Dada is so grateful to OG for saving his life, Satya Dada becomes a father figure to OG and raises OG alongside Satya Dada’s two biological sons.

The movie then fast-forwards to 1993 in Bombay. OG (played by Pawan Kalyan) is a vigilante protector for Bombay Port, where Satya Dada get many of the shipments needed for Satya Dada’s business. OG’s sidekicks include Satya Dada’s biological sons. Venkat has the role of Satya Dada’s elder biological son. Shaam has the role of Satya Dada’s younger biological son.

Vardhaman also has two sons, but they have become gangsters who want to take over Satya Dada’s business and cause terror among the locals. Vardhaman’s elder son Omkar Vardhaman Mirajkar, also known as Omi Bhau (played by Emraan Hashmi). Vardhaman’s younger son is Jimmy Vardhaman (played by Sudev Nair).

Somewhere along the way, OG met and fell in love with a medical doctor named Kanmani (played by Priyanka Mohan), and they have a daughter named Taara, who’s about 5 or 6 years old in most of her scenes. When someone in Satya Dada’s family dies, a man named Arjun (played by Arjun Das) attends the funeral, and a family secret is revealed, which leads to Arjun also being involved in taking over the family business.

“They Call Him OG” then proceeds with the predictable slew of gun shootouts, fist fights and explosions. There’s some samurai swordplay, but it’s awkwardly dropped into the movie. Taara gets kidnapped and is held hostage. OG is a stereotypical scowling “hero” who has a soft spot for his family. The end of the movie announces a sequel, but because so much of “They Call Him OG” is forgettable and senseless, a sequel is likely to be more of the same junk.

Prathyangira Cinemas released “They Call Him OG” in U.S. cinemas on September 25, 2025, the same day the movie was released in India.

Review: ‘Selfiee,’ starring Akshay Kumar and Emraan Hashmi

March 1, 2023

by Carla Hay

“Selfiee”

Directed by Raj Mehta

Hindi with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place primarily in Bhopal, India, the comedy film “Selfiee” (a remake of the 2019 Malayalam-language movie “Driving Licence”) features an all-Indian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A motor vehicle inspector and his 10-year-old son are avid fans of a movie star, but the inspector’s admiration for this celebrity turns to disillusionment and hatred after the two men end up in a bitter public feud.

Culture Audience: “Selfiee” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and the “Driving Licence” movie, but this remake is a long-winded letdown that lacks the charm of the original movie.

Pictured in front, from left to right: Mahesh Thakur, Akshay Kumar and Meghna Malik in “Selfiee” (Photo courtesy of Star Studios)

For a comedy that’s nearly two-and-a-half hours, “Selfiee” takes way too long to have nothing interesting to say. Emraan Hashmi puts in a good effort to make his character believable. The other cast members just exist in a dull movie with silly gimmicks. “Selfiee” is a remake of the 2019 Malayalam-language movie “Driving Licence,” which is far superior to “Selfiee” in every way.

Directed by Raj Mehta and written by Rishabh Sharma, “Selfiee” takes place primarily in Bhopal, India. It’s where motor vehicle inspector Om Prakash Aggarwal (played by Hashmi), who is called Prakash, lives and works. Prakash and his 10-year-old son Gabbu (played by Neev Ahuja) are avid fans of movie star Vijay Kumar (played by Akshay Kumar), a swaggering celebrity who has millions of admirers. Prakash’s wife Minty Aggarwal (played by Nushrratt Bharuccha) thinks that the fan worship that Prakash and Gabbu have for Vijay is foolish and a waste of time. Minty prefers another movie star named Suraj Diwan (played by Abhimanyu Singh), who started out in the movie business around the same time as Vijay.

Vijay and Suraj used to be roommates before they were famous. However, after becoming celebrities, the careers of Vijay and Suraj went in completely opposite directions. Vijay’s career has soared to the greatest of heights, while Suraj’s career has declined to the point where he is now a has-been who’s doing low-quality movies because he needs the money. Suraj, who is very jealous of his rival Vijay, consults with a psychic named Tara (played by Kusha Kapila) for a tarot card reading to see if his luck or Vijay’s luck will change. Tara tells Suraj that the tarot cards predict that Vijay will have bad luck soon.

It just so happens that Vijay has arrived in Bhopal with great fanfare, because he’s filming scenes for his next movie in Bhopal. These are the final scenes to be filmed for his movie. When Prakash and Gabbu find out that Vijay will be in Bhopal, they rush to the area where Vijay’s helicopter is landing. Several members of the media are also there.

Among a crowd of thousands of cheering and excited fans, Prakash and Gabbu desperately try to get Vijay’s attention as Vijay’s car drives by them. The dream of this father and son is to meet Vijay and get a selfie photo taken with this movie star. Of course, Prakash and Gabbu are just one of numerous fans in the crowd who want the same thing. Vijay is too far away for him to notice Prakash and Gabbu.

When Vijay arrives in Bhopal, he is warmly greeted by Vimla Tiwari (played by Meghna Malik), a somewhat flaky employee who has been hired to be Vijay’s assistant during his stay in Bhopal. Her job is to get Vijay whatever he wants and make sure that his life runs as smoothly as possible while he’s in the city. Vijay is an automobile enthusiast who makes several action movies where he has to race cars and do a lot of other driving.

Vijay has recently found out that his driver’s license has been expired for months, and he’s annoyed that the license renewal wasn’t taken care of by someone who works for him. Vimla has been tasked to quietly get the license renewed in Bhopal without Vijay having to take the required license renewal tests. Vimla goes to the regional transport office where Prakash works, and he happens to be the inspector on duty who takes this request.

Normally, Prakash is an ethical inspector who wouldn’t break the rules. But when he finds out that this special treatment would be a personal favor to Vijay, Prakash agrees to “bend the rules” for Vijay, on the condition that Vijay personally visit the office so that Prakash and Gabbu can meet Vijay and get a selfie photo with him. Vimla says she’ll see what she can do about this request, but she won’t make any guarantees.

Vimla goes to Vijay with this request. Vijay and his sycophantic personal assistant Naveen (played by Mahesh Thakur) look up Prakash on social media and see that he is a die-hard fan of Vijay. When Vijay sees that Prakash is a loyal admirer, Vijay figures that this trip to the regional transport office will go smoothly, because he’ll be easily able to convince Prakash to do what Vijay wants Prakash to do in getting the driver’s license renewed.

Vijay show up at the regional transport office, but he’s surprised and outraged to see that this visit won’t be private after all. His arrival was leaked in advance to the media, which quickly spread the news. By the time that Vijay gets to the office, it’s a chaotic scene with thousands of fans, as well as members of the media, gathered in the hope of seeing Vijay.

To make matters worse, Prakash had put up a banner in the office corridor to welcome Vijay, who sees this banner and automatically assumes it was Prakash who leaked the information about Vijay’s visit. Prakash, Gabbu and several of the office employees are eagerly waiting in a room for Vijay to arrive. But instead of it being a positive experience for everyone, the situation quickly turns into an ugly mess.

Vijay storms into the office and yells at Prakash for telling the media about Vijay’s visit. Vijay calls Prakash an “opportunist” who just wants to use this meeting to become famous. Prakash wanted to give Vijay a wrapped gift, but Vijay takes the gift and throws it angrily on the floor. It’s a humiliating experience for Prakash, who is visibily embarrassed, emotionally hurt and shocked. The rejection makes Prakash and Gabbu tearful and upset.

Meanwhile, the media and other people find out that Vijay had gone to the office to try to renew his driver’s license without taking the required tests. Several people in the media express outrage that Vijay was expecting special treatment. Prakash sees all the negative publicity that Vijay is getting and uses it as an opportunity to get revenge on Vijay. Prakash begins giving media interviews saying that Vijay tried to get Prakash to break the rules for Vijay, but Prakash lies to the media and says that he refused.

Prakash is made to look like the hero in the media’s coverage of this story, while Vijay is made to look like the villain. Several people in the media and the general public also call Vijay a hypocrite because he had been starring in a public service campaign about road safety while he had secretly been driving for months without a valid driver’s license. An incensed Vijay decides to get revenge on Prakash. And so begins a feud between the two men that escalates to ridiculous proportions.

There are some complications to Vijay’s revenge plot. First, he’s under a lot of pressure to finish this movie on time and without going over the movie’s budget. The movie’s producer Sunil Awasthi (played by Sushil Bonthiyal) begs Vijay to get his driver’s license renewed so that the movie can be finished. The final scenes to be filmed for the movie require that Vijay do a lot of driving. Sunil tells Vijay that if the movie isn’t finished on time, the movie will miss its target release date, and Sunil will lose his entire investment in the film.

Second, Vijay and his glamorous wife Naina (played by Diana Penty), who frequently travels with him, are expecting a baby (their first child) via a surrogate, who is in New York City. Vijay and Naina have kept this information very private. Only a few people in their inner circle know. The baby was due the following month. However, certain things happen that cause Vijay and Naina to want to go to New York City during the dates that Vijay is supposed to finish filming his movie.

Third, some hoodlums attack Prakash and his family by throwing rocks through the windows of the family’s house. Gabbu gets a head injury in the attack and is rushed to a hospital for treatment. (This violent incident is shown in the movie’s trailer.) The crime occurred shortly after Vijay and Prakash had an argument over the phone. Prakash assumes that Vijay ordered the attack, so Prakash holds a press conference to publicly accuse Vijay of being the mastermind.

“Selfiee” could have had many clever things to say about the roles that the media and celebrity worship play in people’s perceptions of public figures. However, the movie just dumbs everything down to make it into a bombastic and not-very-believable dispute between two very stubborn and immature people. Vijay comes across a smug and egotistical bully who is much worse than Prakash, but Prakash was the one who made this feud public by lying to the media about the circumstances over Vijay’s driver license renewal.

“Selfiee” has some references to how the media, for better or worse, can shape a celebrity’s public image. However, the movie would have had more substance and been more insightful if it also included some awareness of how Prakash and Vijay were both being used by the media, which fanned the flames of this feud. “Selfiee” ignores the bigger picture of the co-dependent relationship between celebrity worship and media coverage. Instead, “Selfiee” over-relies on a lot of lazy and unimaginative slapstick comedy.

The performances in “Selfiee” are on par with the movie’s uneven screenplay and direction, which are frequently very maudlin and sometimes downright terrible. Kumar doesn’t do anything in the movie that’s very special in playing movie star Vijay, while Hashmi gives a more nuanced performance in depicting Prakash as a “regular guy” who gets caught up in something that he did not expect. The last 15 minutes of the film are the absolute worst, turning what could have been a memorable satire into a mush of cloying garbage.

Star Studios released “Selfiee” in select U.S. cinemas on February 24, 2023.

Review: ‘Chehre,’ starring Emraan Hashmi, Amitabh Bachchan, Annu Kapoor, Dhritiman Chatterjee, Rhea Chakraborty, Raghuvir Yadav and Krystle D’Souza

September 7, 2021

by Carla Hay

Pictured clockwise, from left to right: Raghuvir Yadav, Emraan Hashmi, Siddhant Kapoor, Dhritiman Chatterjee, Annu Kapoor and Amitabh Bachchan in “Chehre” (Photo courtesy of Anand Pandit Motion Pictures)

“Chehre”

Directed by Rumi Jaffery

Hindi with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in India, the dramatic film “Chehre” features an almost all-Indian cast of characters (with a few white people) representing the middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: During a snowstorm, a traveling advertising executive finds himself stranded in a mansion with strangers who want to play a dangerous “mock courtroom trial” game with him.

Culture Audience: “Chehre” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in “trapped in the snow” mystery thrillers and don’t mind if the movie has ridiculous plot holes and takes too long to tell the story.

Rhea Chakraborty in “Chehre” (Photo courtesy of Anand Pandit Motion Pictures)

“Chehre” earnestly tries to be an intriguing mystery thriller, but the entire film buries a badly conceived plot in a steady pile-on of nonsense, just like the snowstorm that takes place during the movie. This snowstorm is the reason why the main characters are confined to a mansion, where a guest at the house is pressured into playing a game where he is the defendant in a mock trial. During this trial, secrets are revealed and not everyone might survive this game.

“Chehre” (which is the Hindi word for “faces”) is a little too long (139 minutes) and a little too bloated to sustain this flimsy story, which gets more ridiculous as time goes on. It’s not a boring film, but it seems as if the filmmakers became too enamored with adding in ludicrous complications, in order to stretch out the movie in unnecessary ways. Directed by Rumi Jaffery, who co-wrote the “Chehre” screenplay with Ranjit Kapoor, “Chehre” wants desperately to be a horror-inspired thriller, but it’s more like a soap opera than a scary movie.

You know you’re in store for a self-indulgent film when the opening credits scene features a nearly five-minute morality lecture from the movie’s most judgmental character: Lateef Zaidi (played by Amitabh Bachchan), who is sitting in a chair inside an empty room of a mansion. He is later revealed to be a criminal prosecutor. And he rambles on about how life is a series of judgments, karma and paying for sins. It telegraphs too early what happens later in the movie.

After hearing this pretentious speech, viewers then see a BMW driving on a deserted road somewhere in India during a snowstorm. The driver is an advertising executive in his early 40s named Sameer Mehra (played by Emraan Hashmi), who is lost and trying to find the road to Delhi. A turban-wearing older man is walking on the side of the road, so Sameer asks this stranger if he is on the road to Delhi. The man says no. And just like that, a tree suddenly falls right in front of the car, making it impossible for the car to pass the tree on the road

There’s no explanation for why Sameer is in this deserted part of India during a snowstorm. It’s all just a contrivance for what happens later in the story. The stranger comes to Sameer’s rescue and says the obvious: There’s no way the car can continue driving forward on the road because the tree is blocking the pathway. The stranger also says that he doesn’t know when officials will arrive to remove the tree.

Sameer is dismayed because he was on the way to an important business meeting, which he will probably no longer be able to attend. The stranger introduces himself as Paramjeet Singh Bhuller (played by Annu Kapoor), and he tells Sameer that luckily a friend of Paramjeet’s lives nearby and would be able to accommodate Sameer to stay there during the snowstorm until Sameer can get help. Sameer gladly accepts the offer. Sameer soon sees that there’s more than enough room to accommodate him because the house where he’ll be temporarily staying is a mansion.

The mansion’s owner/host Jagdhish Acharya (played by Dhritiman Chatterjee) is a retired judge. Also at the house are Lateef (the sanctimonious man seen in the movie’s opening credits) and an elderly man named Hariya Jatav (played by Raghuvir Yadav), who likes to play the flute. Lateef says he’s a chief prosecutor, while Paramjeet is a defense attorney. It’s revealed a little later that Hariya is retired and used to work in law enforcement in a very different capacity from the judge and lawyers.

There are two servants in the mansion: Anna (played by Rhea Chakraborty), a shy and attractive housekeeper/cook in her 20s, and Joe (played by Siddhant Kapoor), a brooding handyman in his 20s who is the “strong and silent” type. Sameer finds out that there’s no cell phone service during this storm. And the land line phone service isn’t available either.

And here’s the first red flag that Sameer should have noticed: He’s told that there’s no Internet service either, even if there hadn’t been a snowstorm. In other words, there’s no way that Sameer can immediately communicate with anyone outside of the mansion. Sameer is annoyed by this inconvenience, but he seems satisfied in knowing that at least he’ll be staying at a mansion with servants.

The BMW that Sameer is driving is owned by the advertising agency that employs him as the president/CEO. The agency is owned by a woman in her 30s named Mrs. Natasha Oswal (played by Krystle D’Souza), whose late husband founded the agency. Her much-older husband died a month earlier, and Sameer was promoted to the top executive position to replace the deceased founder. The movie has flashbacks to Sameer’s life in the year before he came to stay at this mansion.

As the men settle in the living room for some drinks, Sameer is told that it’s a tradition for guests in the house to play a game after they have dinner. Sameer doesn’t seem to care to hear about this game because he doesn’t think he’ll be at the mansion for very long. He’s about to find out the hard way how wrong he is about that.

The men ask Sameer about himself. Sameer tells them that he’s the president/CEO of a successful advertising agency, and he has a MBA degree. He is supposed to be in Delhi to meet with an important client to do a photo ad shoot for Butterfly Collections, which are trinket toys that look and move like real butterflies. Sameer has two of these butterfly trinkets that he gives to Anna, who giggles and expresses childlike delight and fascination with these butterflies.

Sameer also says that he’s happily married and has a 5-year-old son named Varan. Lateef notices that Sameer has a gold cigarette case inscribed with the words “With Love from N.O.” When Lateef is asked who “N.O.” is, Sameer says it’s just a friend. Sameer won’t say if it’s a male or female friend and quickly changes the subject.

After dinner, Sameer gets even more pressure to play the game that the other men say all the guests have to play. They explain the game is a mock courtroom trial where the guest is the defendant. Jagdhish will be the judge, Lateef will be the prosecutor, and Paramjeet will be the defense attorney.

The guest is allowed to choose the crime that the guest is “on trial” for, and Sameer is told that it’s to the guest/defendant’s advantage to be the one to make this choice. If not, the choice will be made for the “defendant” on what the crime will be. And it could be for a crime that might be hard to defend.

Sameer says he’s not interested. But then, Anna chimes in and says it would hurt the host’s feelings if Sameer didn’t play the game. Because he doesn’t want to appear rude, Sameer eventually gives in and says yes. However, Sameer says he won’t choose the “crime” for this “trial” because he’s a good person who hasn’t committed any crimes in real life.

Sameer is very smug and self-assured about how morally pure he is. A little too smug. And when someone sounds too perfect to be true, it’s usually a façade. The other men seem to already know it because when Sameer goes on “trial,” it’s revealed that Sameer isn’t as upstanding as he wants people to think he is.

One of the biggest flaws of “Chehre” is how easily Sameer exposes a lot of his secrets. There are hints that there might be supernatural forces at play in how Sameer ended up at this mansion, because it was all a set-up to trap Sameer. The men at the mansion seemed to have been able to have extraordinary control over the circumstances that led Sameer to that mansion in order to get him to play the “mock trial” game. However, the movie gives no real insight into how supernatural these “mock courtroom” men might or might not be.

The “trial” part of the movie isn’t very well-written because the defense attorney doesn’t even make any closing arguments. And the movie takes a very jumbled and convoluted route (with several flashbacks) to get to what’s obviously is going to happen. There are some very gimmicky “plot twists” that try to rewrite some of what was previously established in the story.

Most of the actors give adequate performances, with Hasmhi faring the best because his Sameer character ends up being the most complicated. Chakraborty has the least-impressive acting of the principal cast members. But maybe that’s because she doesn’t quite know how to authentically portray Anna, who is supposed to have mental health issues because of a past trauma. Unfortunately, “Chehre” has limited stereotypes for the women who have significant speaking roles in this movie: The women are either subservient or seductive in “Chehre.”

Because the movie goes on for too long, viewers might find their patience tested when it’s revealed about halfway through the movie that this is no ordinary game, and the men who instigated this game have sinister intentions. The movie’s visual effects aren’t very good. The secrets that are revealed are as cliché as you would imagine them to be. The only real suspense is in wanting to know how the movie will end. But because there are so many awful characters in “Chehre,” viewers will probably have emotionally checked out long before the movie’s underwhelming conclusion.

Anand Pandit Motion Pictures and Saraswati Entertainment Private Ltd. released “Chehre” in cineams in the U.S., India and several other countries on August 27, 2021.