The pandemic delayed an endless list of creative works in the last few years, and Chhalle Mundiyan was one such Punjabi film that suffered this fate. Production for the same was completed right before the lockdown, and now it’s a pioneering Punjabi release dropping directly on an OTT platform. Now available for streaming on Sony Liv, it stars beloved actors like Ammy Virk, Mandy Takhar, Kulwinder Billa, Sonia Kaur, and more.
Chhalle Mundiyan picks up momentum with the return of Pammi to his native village in Punjab along with his boss’s daughter and her family. While the village celebrates his arrival, everyone also mistakes the woman to be his ‘angrezi’ (English) wife, setting the tone for all the situations soon to follow. As Pammi reminisces the sweet moments he shared with Jassi in the past, he wishes to rekindle their love story.
However, the following misconceptions drive them to believe that the other is married and reluctantly give in to their respective marriages. The ensuing misunderstandings intensify the chaos that awaits them and intertwine their fates with another couple who succumbed to similar confusion.
SonyLiv’s official synopsis of the movie reads:
Accompanied by his friend’s wife and child, Pammi returns to his village in Punjab and runs into Jassi, the girl he is in love with. Both, Jassi and Pammi, assume that the other is married and agree to find a suitor to marry. Will Pammi and Jassi overcome this misunderstanding and unite?
–Chhalle Mundiyan Review Does Not Contain Any Spoilers-
Also Read: Shaakuntalam: Samantha Prabhu-Dev Mohan Starrer’s Grand Release Date Revealed
Getting straight into the movie, you realize that its plot isn’t something you haven’t seen before. With that put aside, the Punjabi movie is high on the entertaining factor. Sometimes, you don’t need to pull apart every bit and piece of a film but rather enjoy its simplicity.
Chhalle Mundiyan is the kind of movie you tune into on an evening when you want to kick back and have a good laugh. It doesn’t attempt to break any barriers and surpass your expectation; however, a good comedy is as good as the chaos concocted therein. While you do feel at certain intervals that it might even lack the spine-tickling funny elements and the comic reliefs being utilized are too controlled and don’t go all out, you never seem to detest the movie either.
I do feel that the contemporary comedy genre needs to be adapted according to the new understandings and awareness of the world as well as its people. We’re living in the 21st century, and playing jokes at the expense of kinnars (transgenders as they identify themselves in the Indian subcontinent) shouldn’t be an ongoing fad in comedy dramas anymore.
When tactics like these are thrown in, especially when they don’t play any role other than to stereotype someone’s existence, they will always pass off as appropriation. Even Bollywood movies have resorted to this method more than one can imagine, and frankly, it’s not at all funny.
Other than that, there are several characters in Chhalle Mundiyan that are equivalent to caricatures, but it never seeks to unsettle anyone’s sentimentality and only furthers the much-compressed mayhem, adding to our delight. Having watched the movie, one might even detect some similarities shared with Bollywood’s Singh is King starring Akshay Kumar, but they both hold their own space since the latest release is more focused on the regional terrain.
Chhalle Mundiyan: Worth the Watch?
As mentioned earlier, Ammy Virk’s film can be your go-to option on days you feel like channelling your happy-go-lucky carefree attitude and just enjoy a basic comedy without having much to analyze. However, it’s not really an intriguing case in isolation. The Punjabi film industry is gradually climbing the ladder, with Punjabi music already on the rise for many.
We have a long way to go, but Chhalle Mundiyan has already played its cards in setting the foundation for the same. The future of Punjabi comedies can easily be brightened up by switching some redundant factors with other more effective equivalents. Situational comedies can be our ride into the sunset only if the recurrent features being called into play are done away with.
Chhalle Mundiyan is now streaming on SonyLiv. Let us know your opinions on this release in the comments section.
Also Read: Babli Bouncer Review: Tamannaah Bhatia Starrer Has Its Moments, But Offers Nothing New