Chhorii 2 Movie Review: A preachy, half-baked sequel on the horrors of child marriage

It’s interesting to analyse Hindi horror cinema’s journey. Since class-bunking teenagers in a theatre were already giggling and pre-empting the jump scares, a part of the genre evolved into horror-comedy and we got films like Stree, Munjya and Bhediya, or shall I say the Maddock Horror Comedy Universe. It was the genre’s way of telling its viewers, “Don’t worry, both humour and horror is on us.” Another faction branched out to become something beyond just an empty theme park experience. The social-horror films. Get scared but also think. The real evil is society.

Director: Vishal Furia

Cast: Nushrratt Bharuccha, Soha Ali Khan, Gashmeer Mahajani and Saurabh Goyal

Chhorii 2 seems like a laboured product of the latter faction. It is what you get when themes come before form. A sequel to the 2021 horror film of the same name, Chhorii 2 at first felt unnecessary, only a way to milk out a franchise. The themes were important, if not urgent, and the film mostly stayed on brand, but it didn’t feel organic. It was more message than mayhem. The social overpowered the horror.

It has been seven years since a pregnant Sakshi (Nushrratt Bharuccha) escaped the murderous patriarchs of a Haryana hamlet. She now lives in a city with her young daughter Ishani (Hardika Sharma) at the house of Samar (Gashmeer Mahajani), a cop who--a flashback informs us--rescued her after the events of the first film. Ishani can’t go to school because she has a condition where sunlight causes rashes on her body. It initially seemed like the film might take a vampirish turn, but this character trait was more of a metaphor for how some girls aren’t allowed to step out of their homes. Photosensitivity becomes a symbol for the shackles of patriarchy. Or maybe I read too much into it. Moving on. Trouble, however, is still lurking over mother and daughter, and soon Ishani is kidnapped by the conservatives from her villainous father Rajbir’s village (spoiler: he is alive). Both Sakshi and Ishani are soon trapped in a labyrinthine underworld, bossed over by Daasi Maa (Soha Ali Khan), who possesses supernatural powers, whose origin is never really explained. There is also a prehistoric pradhaan (village head) lurking behind a heavy door, and Ishani is being prepped for samarpan (submission) to him. The literal horrors of child marriage. Just that the scary bits never really come.

When it comes to creating an atmosphere of fear, Chhorii 2 resorts to the tricks of its predecessor. In Chhorii, Sakshi was trying to navigate through fields of towering sugarcane in order to find her husband. Here, she is getting lost in the alleys, trying to find her daughter. The spooky elements are again little kids, laughing, running away when you spot them. There are also women shrieking for help. Sakshi again assures herself, “This is all an illusion.” In order to build a mood, some scenes stretched painstakingly long, and I often found myself praying for a jump scare just to get it over with.

Chhorii 2 is essentially the soul of Stree (2018) haunting the sets of Tumbbad (2018). The underground alleys are below a well and look very Hastar-coded. The demonic pradhaan looks like he probably knows the grandmother from Rahi Anil Barve’s film. With Chhorii 2, the franchise seems to graduate from the evils of female infanticide to the evils of child marriage. The theme is essential, but the horror elements felt more derpy than dreadful. Daasi Maa’s phantom avatar seemed like it took inspiration from the popular ganji chudail meme. There were some good bits, but they were only rehashes of elements from the first film.

The actors too were subservient to a weak script and didn’t stand out. Nushrratt is convincingly frightened, but she oscillated between being afraid and being invincible. Soha is an interesting addition to the cast, and she played Daasi Maa with both restraint and dexterity. Chhorii 2 lacked what most films do these days, be it horror or not: the element of surprise. The real jump scare was the film not having a conclusive climax.