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‘Chhorii 2’ Movie Review: A Feminism-for-Dummies Horror Sequel
If Vishal Furia’s horror film were a person, it’d a gender studies student on a gap year.
Director: Vishal Furia
Writers: Vishal Furia, Ajit Jagtap
Cast: Nushrratt Bharuccha, Hardika Sharma, Soha Ali Khan, Saurabh Goyal, Gashmeer Mahajani, Pallavi Ajay
Streaming on: Amazon Prime Video
Language: Hindi
If Chhorii (2021) was an overlong, preachy and screechy horror film centered on female infanticide, Chhorii 2 is an overlong, preachy and screechy horror film centered on child marriage. In a post-Stree world, this social horror template feels a bit hollow without humour — like the cinematic equivalent of a gender studies student on a gap year. The sequel takes place seven years after the events of Chhorii, Vishal Furia’s Hindi remake of his Marathi movie about a pregnant woman (Nushrratt Bharuccha, as Sakshi) who walks away from a patriarchal and baby-killing village with the ex-wife (Pallavi Ajay, as Rani) of her murderous husband. If this sentence sounds complicated, never mind. Just remember that Sakshi is the hero because she went through hell and back to protect her girl-child.
So Sakshi is now living with her seven-year-old daughter, Ishani (Hardika Sharma), and Rani in a spooky bungalow in the city. This bungalow belongs to a do-gooder cop, Inspector Samar (Gashmeer Mahajani). A strange exposition dump (where he’s mansplaining Sakshi’s own history to… Sakshi) reveals that Samar was the investigator on her case who then decided to let her stay in his ancestral house. No agenda, apparently. If you ask me, the real supernatural thriller revolves around a scarily generous man who helps a single mother without expecting anything in return. A green flag and a red herring at once? Ghouls are a more plausible concept.
Anyway, little Ishani is allergic to sunlight: she is a child of darkness. I’m disappointed to note that not once does her mom suspect that she’s a vampire (or Bane). One night, Ishani is hypnotised by a malignant ghost (a floating Scream mask of sorts) and gets abducted. Sakshi’s biggest fear — that her ‘dead’ husband is alive and desperate for revenge — comes true. The village is back. Samar and Sakshi return to the spooky sugarcane fields. The foreshadowing isn’t subtle: Sakshi is first seen teaching kids about “aadimanav” (primitive man) in the classroom. It’s obvious that this reference will come back to haunt Sakshi, the film and the viewers.
The lore of Chhorii 2 is almost interesting. It features a backward community, a witch-like presence named Dasi (Soha Ali Khan), a group of enslaved wives, an underground prison-well straight out of The Dark Knight Rises, a grooming ritual, and an ailing creature who requires the blood of a little girl to revive the virility of the village. Dasi is basically the HR recruiter and Ishani, the most promising candidate. The problem with the film is it remains unsure about how to use its ample resources. At least half of it is just atmosphere and staging; people take twice as long to do things and reach places, as if they’re killing time and using up their mandatory leaves before the year ends. As a result, there’s no sense of intrigue or rhythm — the narrative padding keeps distorting the ‘spirit’ of the message. The sound design and VFX try to compensate for the papad-thin plot.
The roles remain shapeless. Samar has nothing to do except get lost in the maze-tunnels and record voice-notes (“this will take time”) to justify his absence for long stretches. At one point, he fends off some attackers in the field; when the film returns to him after a series of dramatic happenings, he is still fending them off. You keep anticipating him to be more substantial. But no, he’s just an incompetent policeman with no ulterior motive. Sakshi herself looks like she’s in her notice period; her entire arc is surplus to proceedings. An endless scene features her searching for Ishani with a torchlight to no avail. Another endless scene shows her seeing the ghosts of dead mothers and going crazy. It’s hard not to wonder if the writing starts from a space of providing Bharuccha with an acting platform. The set pieces serve no other purpose; Sakshi appears to be in an extra bonus-footage film. Her quest is exhausting because Ishani and the rest of the gang seem to be occupying a different tonal universe altogether.
The only productive employee in this disjointed office is Soha Ali Khan’s Dasi Maa, a figure of lost womanhood, moral ambiguity, subservience and heartbreak. She has the powers of an oppressor but struggles to transcend her own status as the oppressed. Her moments with Ishani — and her own anti-fairytale — hint at a better and more rooted film with shades of Tumbbad (2018). She's the Rani of the sequel, with a redemption arc that perhaps deserved its own spin-off. But every time Chhorii 2 threatens to upend the genre and make sense, Sakshi resurfaces with the main character energy of a wronged influencer. It's never a good sign when a feminist horror franchise appears to be haunted by its own hero. It’s not a stretch to wonder if she’s such an overbearing parent that this whole thing might be an elaborate conspiracy to put Ishani in a ‘safer’ habitat.
The franchise is so aggressive with its themes that it’s a heartbeat away from implying that non-mothers are weaker women. At some level, it’s worth questioning why such movies choose the lazy route and place modern characters in rural settings. The formula reeks of urban exoticism — it presents a rustic environment full of mythical elements (unlike, say, NH10) so that the progressiveness-for-dummies tone is easier to achieve. It’s a brand of hashtag-horror that strives for effect over curiosity. Despite its mood-lullaby vibe, Chhorii 2 resembles a curated museum exhibit of go-girl tropes. It’s all too familiar. But I’m still convinced that Inspector Samar is a closet incel. He has to be. If the film went on a little longer — like a third hour — I’m dead sure that he’d turn on Sakshi, light a cigarette and let out a wicked cackle: “Time to pay that rent”.