Choked: Anurag Kashyap’s ruse to depict his take on De-Mon?

At some point in our lives, most of us would have suffered from performance anxiety. It could have been while performing in a school play when you were a child, just before an important meeting / presentation or even in bed while having sex. The field of sports is filled with examples of strong teams and players choking when it matters most. While reading this, I am sure all cricket fans are thinking of South Africa. It isn't unique to any one of us. What matters is how you move on and that defines you as an individual.

Anurag Kashyap's latest - 'Choked: Paisa bolta hain' - on Netflix is about an incident of performance anxiety that affects the direction of one's life. Sarita, played by Saiyami Kher, is a working woman who handles household chores along with earning for a living. Her husband Sushant, underplayed well by Roshan Mathew, is unemployed and refuses to be of much help at home. Sarita is haunted by an incident in her past where she choked and failed. She experiences nightmares which gives her a feeling of strangulation. She feels she has let her husband down, who was collateral damage because of her failure. However, her fortunes change dramatically one day when she discovers that the drainage below her kitchen sink is spewing money. A choked drainage potentially turns around Sarita’s choked life.

This plot on its own would have been compelling enough. But this is not all to it. Sarita's adventure happens against the backdrop of demonitization that took place in 2016. The movie, through its portrayal, scathingly attacks the decision of the government to strip the currency of its status as a legal tender at a notice of less than 4 hours. You can see that those who are most adversely affected have nothing to gain from the decision and those applauding it have nothing to lose from it. The makers of the movie, in a not so subtle manner, provide their political opinion through this medium.

This entire episode of demonitization doesn't add any significant value to Sarita and her arc. Making a standalone movie which would have focused on criticizing the political establishment may have created another set of problems given the current polarized environment in the country. May be Anurag Kashyap has learnt from his past experiences with the censor board and decided that it's better off this way. On pretext of the central theme, he very slyly showcases his take on demonitization.

Given that this is Anurag Kashyap's world, most of the characters here have grey shades. Given an opportunity, every person is willing to bend the rules. Amruta Subash, as the neighbour who lives downstairs, displays the eccentricity of her character very well and is spot on with her performance. Saiyami Kher pulls off this non glamorous avatar in a restrained manner.

The movie is nowhere close to some of Kashyap's best work and neither dark enough (for me Ugly still remains his best). The editing is not sharp and the screenplay is not as gripping as the concept. Would it have been better to focus solely on Sarita and her journey and not include the satirical take on demonitization? We'll never know. Is this a movie which showcases the journey of a working middle class woman with demonitization as an event in her life; or is Sarita's story a ruse to put out this view on one of the most controversial political decision? Go figure.

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