There are certain parts in Chopsticks, the new Netflix original, that tug at your heartstrings, and other parts that could have resonated with you, except that they are drowned in bad writing and execution.
Mithila Palkar plays Nirma, a 25-year-old girl from Aurangabad struggling in the big city. Her fashion choices and middle-class ways are often made fun of. Although she tries hard and learns from every experience, her small-town naivety remains. Her fingers, for example, start twitching when she faces an unpredictable situation. For her new car, she requests a registration number that adds up to seven. But instead, what she gets adds up to eleven, which is not a good sign. Her mother tells her to take the car to a temple, where it gets stolen. The cops are of no help and she is instead directed to a conman (Abhay Deol), who likes to be addressed as Artist. He takes a liking to Nirma and decides to help her, after, of course, cracking a few jokes about her being named after a washing powder.
The only problem is that Nirma’s car has ended up with the eccentric gangster Faiyaz Bhai, whose goat has fallen in love with it. He loves his goat too much to deny him anything. The rest of the film is about the struggle of Nirma and Artist to find Faiyaz and get the car back. There are a few scenes in Chopsticks that elicit laughter. The slice-of-life tone takes time to build. The three characters in the film, directed by Sachin Yardi, could have their own solo projects. But their coming together in a storyline that is weakly executed does not bode well for the show.
CHOPSTICKS
Available on Netflix
Rating: 2/5