Crazxy Review: Gripping One-Character Movie Where Sohum Shah Shines As The Lead

Writer-director Girish Kohli seems to be inspired by the 2013 Tom Hardy starrer Locke. Hardy plays a construction foreman who is about to commence the biggest concrete pour in Britain but goes driving from Birmingham to London in the night to be with a woman pregnant with his child who has gone into premature labour. During the course of the drive he fields calls from his wife (on whom he cheated), his sons who keep updating him on the football match they wanted to watch together, his boss who wants him back at any cost, his trainee, whom he guides to prepare for the pour and his girlfriend who feels she’s going to die during childbirth. It’s a film totally shot inside a car, what with the central character battling one emotional dilemma after the other.

Well, the premise of Crazxy is very much the same. Dr. Abhimanyu Sood (Sohum Shah) is in the middle of a shady deal when he gets a phone call informing him that his daughter Vedika (Unnathi Surana), who suffers from Down Syndrome, has been kidnapped. He has been estranged from his wife (voiced by Nimisha Sajayan) and feels that this is either a prank call, or an attempt by his ex to get more money. He has the money (why he has five crores cash in his car is a spoiler) but initially refuses to part with it. Later, when he gets video evidence of the kidnapping, he changes his mind and gives in to the demands of the kidnapper. He’s told to drive to a specific location outside Delhi and drop the bag containing the ransom money. Along the way, he fields several emotionally draining calls from his ex, his current crush (voiced by Shilpa Shukla), his irritated boss (voiced by Piyush Mishra) and his junior, whom he guides through a complex stomach operation while simultaneously changing a flat tire, one of the most exhilarating sequences of the film. He manages to defuse all situations and makes it to the drop location almost on time, only to be confronted with the most harrowing truth of his life…

The film, with its runtime of just 93 minutes, feels like it has been shot in real time. It’s a taut thriller at one level and a film which strikes a powerful message about Down Syndrome at a deeper core. The climax will surely leave you teary-eyed. It’s hard to engage the viewer in a one-character film but intelligent writing, cinematography (by Sunil Borkar and Kuldeep Mamania) and editing (Sanyukta Kaza, Rythem Lath) make sure you never lose focus. Background score by Jesper Kyd too contributes to the onscreen tension. Sohum Shah too has risen to the occasion to essay another complex performance. He doesn’t have any co-star to support him and yet carves out a totally believable character despite only reacting to phone calls. The film follows his redemption arc where we first hate him for being a callous doctor and an insensitive father but later we start rooting for him as things unfold. And this is only possible because of the emotional intensity he displays. It’s another crazy performance by Sohum after Tumbbad (2018), perhaps his career-best yet.

Watch this zippy, one-of-a-kind thriller for its road movie vibes, intriguing plot, gutsy acting and the powerful message that all children are special. Sohum Shah carries the film on his shoulders and is ably supported by the voices of Nimisha Sajayan, Shilpa Shukla, Piyush Mishra and Tinnu Anand.

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