Pachchis (2021) — Movie Review and Analysis
The Indian movie’s industry is releasing excellent titles in 2021, such as Joji and Malik, to mention some. The quality delivered is incredible, and Pachchis is one of those films.
Pachchis is an intriguing Indian crime-thriller released in June 2021. It lasts for two hours and seven minutes, and it offers a lot of entertainment supported by exciting cinematography.
The story is well written, but it’s not excellent. Perhaps, this is the last element to transform this great film into a masterpiece. Is the movie bad? Absolutely no. It’s engaging, it provides well-designed twists, and the actors are very talented. A special mention goes to Ravi Varma, R.K., who can add a special touch to any scene, bringing to our face a shy smile even in the saddest moments.
Gambling, friendship, the desire for justice, corruption, dark characters and mysteries are the main ingredients on the scene.
- Does Pachchis deliver its purpose?
- And what did we like?
Pachchis — The Story
The movie doesn’t have a story but multiple ones. Every character on the scene has its goal to reach and, to achieve it, there is no space for emotions, feelings or humanity.
The movie’s beginning reminds of “Big Bad Wolves.” Rakesh needs to resist the cruel interrogation conducted by Jayanth. The problem is that Jayanth found a file that can compromise the political campaign of his boss Gangadhar. Moreover, the document contains traces of an investigation that, if revealed, could change the destiny of the next elections.
Jayanth considers Rakesh the main suspect, and he needs to stop him before it is too late. It’s part of a political gamble between Gangadhar and his main antagonist Basava Raju. They both want to use any resources they have to destroy each other before the election.
Project power is the leitmotif of the film. Of course, everyone takes their chance, but who will succeed?
Around this significant conflict, there are other characters with their wants and needs to satisfy. Abhiram, a young journalist addicted to gambling, is the one who moves many other stories and plots. For example, he needs to find twenty-five lakhs to repay the money owed to R.K., a casino owner with his hands on multiple businesses.
Desperation makes men smarter, and Abhiram finds the way to his dreamed money. But his story will cross the ones of the other characters, and everything will become challenging, intriguing, confusing, but entertaining; well, at least for us in front of the tv.
- Will Abhiram succeed with his plan?
- What will he learn?
- Who are the other characters, and what do they want?
You have 2 hours and 7 minutes to find out, later can be too late.
But don’t worry, continue your reading after you have watched the movie. Spot a Movie will try to support you in solving the chaos…or the case.
Pachchis — Review, Analysis and Insights
(This section contains SPOILERS, make sure you watched the movie first)
We need to mention that this is a low budget film, therefore judging all the elements, we should consider this critical side. The writer and director of the movie is Sri Krishna and this is his first movie.
Pachchis means twenty-five in Telugu. Apparently, it means nothing, but this is a recurrent number for Abhiram’s destiny if you observe the movie. Twenty-five lakhs is the debt he owes to R.K. The exact amount is the first offer Mallikarjun proposes to settle the case and receive the policeman’s name. In both of the cases, Abhiram fails, and the story develops challenging twists for our characters.
1. Life is a gamble. Place your bet
Isn’t it true that any decision we take in life has its risks? We can lose or gain something. With one sentence, we can change our lives forever. And this phrase reminds us of Cherry. Every character in the scene needs to face dangerous consequences if their choices are wrong.
Everyone wants to win something more and, to achieve it, they act like gamblers. Each of them seems cold, without feelings or emotions, like a poker player at a table looking for a tiny sign to spot the bluff of its opponent.
And they do it very well. It’s difficult for us to understand who is cheating or not, what will be the next step or decision they will take. The movie does a great job in this part, making it difficult for us to understand our characters and the story.
The film lets us understand the horrible consequences we can face when gambling becomes an addiction and not a fun activity. Unfortunately, the idea that the next chance will be your lucky one is not easily controllable for everyone. But the movie wants to tell us : “You can’t win the lottery if you don’t buy the ticket”.
As always, the truth is in the middle, and gambling can be fun with the right approach. But, unfortunately, we don’t have any school where someone can learn about betting and gambling, making it easy to lose control if we don’t know about the topic.
When you bet, you buy a probability to win or lose; you need to balance this choice, as our characters need to do. But who is the winner in our story?
2. The big bluff and the failed attempts
As we mentioned, every character has a goal.
Did they win the competition? Let’s analyse some of our players.
Abhiram
He wants money to repay his debts and achieve his goal, but many people will die or suffer. In the end, he changes but, probably, he will never find forgiveness or peace. Especially for what happened to Akash.
Avanthi
She needs to find the truth about what happened to her missing brother Rakesh. Avanthi needs to survive to find the truth, and she does. She made her bet, risking her life, and she won her prize. But at what cost? She refuses to cooperate with the authorities, becoming almost a criminal who kills other people on the way to her goal.
Jayanth
He is the crucial player in the movie. He works for Gangadhar, but he is the cop that they are searching everywhere. His bet is the most dangerous, made probably in the name of justice. He risked his life more than once to win his lottery, and he succeeded. Did he win? No, because the corrupt police can’t do anything to take action against the newly elected Gangadhar.
He also had to act like a criminal, killing and threatening people. Not precisely the symbol of justice.
Therefore, Jayant needs to change his identity and move to another part of the country, defeated by injustice, playing his revenge by sending the document to Abhiram, this time in his journalist role.
R.K.
He wants to make money in any way. He is constantly looking for new opportunities. R.K. is perhaps not the best criminal, and his bet was to trust Abhiram. He always thought that someday he would be helpful to him. And when this card is on the table, he tries to play it to win five crores but, instead, he finds his death. Even R.K. won anything.
Basava Raju
He wants to win the election, destroying his opponent Gangadhar, but he ends up alone, without his family and killing himself.
Gangadhar
He seems the winner of the game. He won the election, his project power is still ongoing, but there are essential points. Jayanth tricked him when Gangadhar tells Jayanth: “He (Prakesh) did make clowns out of you, didn’t he?”, we already know who the real clown is… Jayanth manipulated Gangadhar to take his information and then revealed the document to Abhiram. Even Gangadhar is not the winner, and the movie leaves space for a possible sequel.
We could continue with other characters, but we think you got the point. We have multiple stories, bets, and attempts to gain something. For this reason, gambling is a metaphor for life, and we need to make our choice very carefully.
3. Who cares about justice if all that’s left is a graveyard?
Avanthi said this powerful sentence to Jayanth when she had the moment to have her revenge. She found out the truth about her brother, she had the killer in front of her, but instead of pulling the trigger of her gun, she shot something more powerful.
How can we seek justice if the way to do it involves graveyards, lies and killing other people?
It would be a contradiction. The truth, unfortunately, is that some lives are more important than others. In our movie, Rakesh is worth less than Gangadhar. In our world, the characters change but the final no.
Pachchis — Pros and Cons
Pros:
We think that the cinematography is exquisite, the idea behind the film is intriguing, the twists are not original but engaging, the music is captivating, the actors (most of them at their first experiences) delivered an admirable interpretation. The story teaches us something important about friendships, gambling, justice and how money shouldn’t be our first goal in life.
We loved the scene in the lift, when Avanthi and Abhiram talk about crimes while the poor guy is listening, unaware, to his music. So danger could always be behind us.
Cons:
We think that this movie has great potential, but it’s the first release of this young team. The script offers death moments which are just delaying the focus on the right points of the story. Perhaps it’s done on purpose, leaving the actors playing their poker game with us, preventing us from understanding their next move. But we are most likely to think that this movie could turn into a masterpiece with an expert writer and director. And we are sure that their next job will offer much more cured details.
We reviewed “No Sudden Move“, and between the two films, we can find significant differences. The American one is fully curated and coming from the experience of the writers and the production. Pachichis, on the contrary, has slow and avoidable moments, which unfortunately, let us lose the focus for the main plot. Anyway, congratulations to the whole cast for this engaging story.
Our final rating for Pachchis is 7.5/10
Where you can watch Pachchis
The movie is currently available on Amazon Prime Video, but check this link to see where you can watch it in your country.
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