[This entire review can be watched in the Youtube Show, "I Like to Movie It"]

Did you know that “Bollywood” is one of the genres in Hollywood? Let that sink in… take your time. Just like musical is a genre, sword and sandals is a genre, Blaxploitation is a genre – Bollywood as a theme is also a genre in Hollywood. And this Bollywood genre is a very stereotypical, rudimentary shape of Hindi films overemphasized by Hollywood. I would like to recommend you DC’s Legend of Tomorrow Season 4, Episode 11 – just to understand what I mean.

Yes, songs and celebration are integral part of Bollywood – an interlude agent that serve to break between two explicitly different situations. In Chintu Ka Birthday, this agent has been used in near-perfect manner – a simple acapella song, a simple celebration and immediately boom, a bomb goes off! I could not resist commending this enthralling scene before we looked into the threads of this beautifully crafted masterpiece. Welcome to I Like to Movie It – let’s get right into: Chintu Ka Birthday.

Chintu, the eponymous boy is in Iraq and today is his birthday. His father Madan Tiwary played by the versatile everyman Vinay Pathak is a waterguard salesman, who shifted to Iraq but could not bear being away from his family – so, he used illegally forged Nepali Passports to get his wife and children, along with his mother-in-law to Iraq. During Saddam Hussein’s fall, Indians are duly extracted, but because of their falsified paperwork, The Tiwary family is boxed up in Hassan Mahdi’s small house – where they are planning to celebrate Chintu’s birthday.

The entire movie takes place in and around this house – a complete thespian setting, which has been used not just to tell a simple life’s chaotic hours but also to box up the viewer’s mindset – not letting anyone escape and feel the Tiwary family’s angst through and through. This movie was released on June 5, 2020 – when almost the entire world was locked up inside their own homes – this has helped accentuate the mood-setting – making the viewer feel closer and nearer to all characters and feel the threat immensely.

Vinay Pathak, Tillottama Shome, Seema Bhargava, and Bisha Chaturvedi – these actors who make four members the Tiwary family in the movie – excel in their respective roles. I cannot be very sure about it, but these actors might not have ever seen or witnessed the heart of a war – but looking at each of their faces, you cannot tell otherwise. The tension they feel is almost real, and with American soldiers played by Nate Scholz and Reginald L Barnes imposing their raw authority to this family – every ticking second makes you bite your nails – something that a Bollywood movie hasn’t made me do for a very long time! Thank you directors: Devanshu and Satyanshu Singh: Bakchodi can be beautiful sometimes, if you know what I mean.

Nate Scholz and Reginald L Barnes are relatively unknown American actors – but let times tell: they have left an unforgettable mark in Bollywood. The directors, who are also the writers of this movie, have taken a simple theme of ying-yang and conjured up these two characters of Reed and Jackson that is so beautiful to witness. When Reed is an imposer, Jackson is the sympathizer, and when Jackson feels it’s time to show their “American” colors, Reed serves as the sympathetic villain. For those who have loved Darth Vader – you would find Reed of the same breed. Absolutely fun to watch villain.

Before we get into the low points of this movie, special mentions need to go to Khaled Masso, Mehroz Mir, and Amina Afroz – the tertiary pivots of this machine. The child actor Mehroz Mir who plays Waheed, an Iraqi child, serving as the antihero here – walks toe-to-toe with his adult counterparts. His intentions are clear, and even in a small role, his character gets a full arc.

Chintu Ka Birthday, however, failed miserably with Chintu himself. Child actor Vedant Chibber is awkward and robotic – and his inexperience shows prevalently. Spoiler alert here: there is no reaction on his face when his father is being beaten, almost absent expression when he’s talking over the phone, no urgency that is usually seen in a six year old, and the sadness of not being able to celebrate his birthday is zero. I still have this gasp of air lodged on my throat: could he not have smiled at the end of the movie? Watch the movie and add this smile on Chintu’s face when the movie closes – it would be a satisfying end.

Another flaw in the movie is the stereotype – each and every character behaves like every other story we have watched in Bollywood since the 80s. Mother-in-law is nagging, elder sister is imposing, father is an everyman being too righteous to be true, mother is helpless, family friend suffers from martyr syndrome, a male student tries to corrupt, a female friend tries to unveil the corruption, Americans are rude and heartless, a black American soldier is sympathetic, a white guy suffers from white supremacy. Each and every character seen in this movie – even though very well laid out in hierarchy and roles – they are stereotypical, which could have been broken just a little bit not to make it too soap-opera influenced.

Chintu Ka Birthday deserves a 4 out of 5 stars easy. All Indian Bakchod should do more films, and Singhs should bring in more such stories that unearth the unseen part of India and Indians. Chintu Ka Birthday is fresh and highly gripping movie, never letting the viewer pause even for a second. I will keep this movie at high regards for a long time to come.