Movie Review: Khap (2011)

Cast: Om Puri, Govind Namdev, Manoj Pahwa, Mohnish Bahl, Anooradha Patel, Uvika Choudhary, Sarrtaj Gill

Directed by Ajai Sinha

KHAP tries to do too numerous things at the same time and not succeed to do justice to the cause it projected to serve. It is neither a serious movie on the problem of ‘honour killings’ in India’s Jat land, nor an entertaining love story with great commercial promise. It is a kind of film, with content of B grade regional movies. The writer-director-producer Ajay Sinha wastes valuable assets and efforts on a negligible endeavor and delivers a flop.

The idea and the story of the movie are interesting yet expected. There are also a few dramatic twists and turns in the screenplay, rendered ineffective by the flabbiness in direction. A poorly conceived, developed, written, performed, force-fitted, and directed romantic track delivers the final blow to its reliability as an issue-based movie.

KHAP is a modern tale of traditional bloodbath erupting in the heartland of central India where certain villages still follow unkind age-old customs. This is where a story of passion, dishonor and deceit unfolds; where the sweet innocence of youth is throttled by stubborn beliefs.

'Khap' sounds like a blunt instrument cutting through flesh and sarcastically refers to Khap Panchayats or village bodies that brutally skin young couples who marry within their own clan, village (or cow-shed?). Although, the Supreme Court of India has banned Khaps from exercising medieval methods to simulate the phrase, 'till death do us apart', no court has proof-read the script of the movie, 'Khap', so here we go again.

Luckily, movies made on grave topics are usually intercept with a lighter parallel screenplay to balance the mood. Unfortunately, 'Khap' takes the similar story so far, it leaves the core issue like an abandoned baby outside an abandoned church. So between the barbaric chopping, tractor mowing and sword stabbing of couples marrying within their 'gotra' (clan) in a old-fashioned village called Sajod, lies a diabetically-sugary urban love story.

Welcome to Delhi, where 'sweet16' aka Ria (Uvika Choudhary) giggles in front of her laptop when she's pinged by 'cool stud' aka Kush (Sarrtaj Gill). Under the costume of being a Canadian babe and an Australian mate, the two exchange some tacky messages and odd pictures of each other (a close-up of Ria's pouting lips and a widescreen of Kush's eyes with his shades hanging by the tip of his nose). Clutching on to these quirky photos, the duo indulge in a boring song to find each other. Being from the same college and not across continents comes in handy and this hunt ends soon. To celebrate their union, we break into another song, which traces their relationship with signboards like 'Love has begun', 'Love in mid-air' and 'Love in danger'. Ok, back to some chop-chop in Sajod. Another duo forgot to spot 5 differences between their 'gotras' before saying, 'I do'. Chop! Slash! Splatt! Enough? Ok, go back to downtown Delhi!

Now, the city and village sequences can't be parallel forever, so Ria's dad, Madhur (Mohnish Bahl) happens to be the son of Khap President of Sajod, Omkar Chaudhary (Om Puri), aka Commander Slash? Disturbed by his father's terrible ways, Madhur had forsaken Sajod life decades ago to move to Delhi. But what Madhur couldn't give up (and something that we all have to unitedly endure) are his charred and wormlike expressions (possibly produced by placing a transparent box of fart over his face?).

Anyway, to connect the dots, Riya and friends also happen to visit Sajod for a picnic/ field trip/ Khap darshan etc and discover the dark order of the place. Later, Madhur, who is also a human rights officer, is sent to investigate a possible case of honour killings in Sajod. And with all roads heading to Sajod, it's hardly imaginative to guess where this headless chicken is headed. Following a series of 'Papa, I'm not coming home', we have some shameful and some accidental killings. Ria and Kush also get intricately mixed up in this sternly overdramatic story that results to nil.

Ompuri’s talent is wasted in this unorganized tale. After Naughty@4o, Uvika Choudhary has nothing to do. Manoj Pahwa and Govind Namdev are O.K. in their acts.

Bollywood is a good medium to make voice for social evils like honour killing.

Overall, it is an average film and unable to deliver about social issue honour killings what expected.