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During the 1970s Charles Sobhraj committed at least 12 murders throughout Southeast Asia of tourists on the hippy trail. After spending 21 years in prison he was released in 1997 and retired comfortably as a celebrity in Paris, charging large sums of money for interviews and 15 million dollars for the rights to his life story for a movie. After he went to Nepal he was arrested by Nepal officials for the murders of 2 of his victims. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. . Main Aur Charles is a movie directed by .The notorious criminal played by Randeep Hooda. I went into the movie without knowing anything or any expectations. I purposefully didn't even watch the trailer of the movie before watching it.

Let me start with some nice things about the movie. There is a stranger but interesting humour depicted in the movie. Police is shown making hilarious ghoofups. There is also a custodial battle between the various state police to get the prize of catching shobraj

And the best part of the movie was that I forgot I was watching Randeep Hooda. He was hands down the best part of the movie. He was amazingly convincing as the protagonist. It reminded me of Jake Gylanhall's character In Night Cralwer. Richa Chaddha playing a law student & Adil Hussain playing Amod Kanth did a good job as supporting actors. The movie actually picks up pace in the second half and is worth the watch.

Now the bad part; As soon as the movie started my initials thoughts were that the movie was very confusing. We are introduced to the antagonist very quickly and little time is given to the develop the character. This was case for the entire first half. It felt very rushed to the point that it became even boring.

There is even a long 15 min sequence where people are talking about shobraj, we see newspaper clips etc. But it just helps in creating an Image and does nothing to help the viewer understand character. Throughout the movie, I felt the director was more interested in Creating the Image rather than dismantle the character.

The movie offers little to the audience with respect to any insight into Shobhraj's criminal mind. Why he does what he does. For a script to be strong we need to understand why a certain character it taking an action. The movie did not provide any clear answers.

The movie keeps narrating to us that Charles shobraj is hypnotic, brutal, intelligent and ruthless but it does not show what makes him as such. Many places where we could have expected an interesting dialogue, the scripts decides to take a shortcut, with saying annoying it gives us a distant shot of the characters talking and we are left to our own imagination.

The title of the movie suggests that its from the point of view of an officer who is chasing Charles. The film is weak in this area as well. We get no insights on the exact thought process that is motivating the police.

Making it more difficult was the fact that the movie didn't have any subtitles for any French or other languages used in the movie. Hindi movies don't go deep.. they are just surface.. didn't understand why Charles did what he did... hi psychology... it did not delve why he was charmer for women.... what is the psychology of women who fell for him...

I think the movie was afraid to admit that its about a serial killer. They added Bollywood masala to a real life horror story of brutality. The psychopathic mindset of this killer was not explored rather what we got a typical crime genre Bollywood movie. It wasn't a psychological portrait of Charles shobraj but a dumbed down version to make him look good on screen

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This movie is a look into rural Punjab where even brothers turn into enemies over land or water issues.. Me being from a village, i can say the situation is exactly like it's depicted in the movie and in some cases much worse. Anyone from Punjab will definitely connect to the movie.

The movie opens up with wide shots of Punjab and the beauty is mesmerizing. The background song tells us about the pride of Punjabis. We see Jimmy Shergill aged to 50 years and must say the makeup guys did an awesome job .

Jassi played Mahi Gill is introduced to us doing traditional Punjabi dance "Gidda" The choreographers did justice to the dance. Her character had so much potential but they failed to properly utilize it in the movie.

The movie raises some relevant issues. It shows that an arrange marriage in Punjab mostly is based on the number of acres of land on owns. This is so true in reality where the first consideration for any marriage is the size of property owned. ...

Though the movies starts pretty good but is filled with many movie clichés. The actress running into our hero and falling in his arms. Love at first sight for the and many many more.

The movie does have a positive message for youngsters of Punjab. It points out that all guys do is waste time to make beautiful girlfriends so they can show off in front of their friends. They waste lot of time and money behind these beautiful girls. One should check this behavior in oneself. Anyone who has lived in Chandigarh will know how much time guys wastes chasing girls. The movie is also is a wakeup call to girls who fall for these type of opportunist guys too quickly thinking it is love. Later getting betrayed & hurt.

Songs of the movie are all great but unfortunately they don't any anything to the movie except the first one. I think its time that movie makers stop adding songs to the movies for no reason. We should be done with clichéd Holli songs, clichéd love making songs which only acts as fillers.

There is this older women character in the movie. This type of women can be found in many households. She is the one who manipulates men in her house to please her own ego. Like this women, Anyone from a Punjabi family will recognize many of the characters depicted in the movie so a thumbs up to the directors but unfortunately they were not used to their full potential.

Though the 1st half was strong. The movie took a downward turn in the 2nd half. The movie lost its way from being a serious movie that brings up an important issue faced by people in Punjab to almost becoming a comedy... The movie had me confused of what to think.. The tension & pacing generated in the first half went cold in second half as nothing much happened...

The movie missed an opportunity. It could have made us questions many of our actions that happen under the influence of false pride. How does pride make brothers enemies which lasts for generations, how does pride allow us to kill our daughters if the fall in love with someone from different caste, how does pride become more important than our own family that we allow it to be destroyed. How can revenge control everything in oneself and life has no value. The movie failed to ask these important questions.

Some part the story is really good and the movie easily competes with big Bollywood movies and in some places it looks like a small budget Punjabi movie. The action in the movie was awful and its filming is even worse. May be a better choice of action directors could have helped since the just look too fake.

There are 2 kinds of people who should watch this movie. First is people who have at some point lived in a village in Punjab. Second is the people who want to know a bit more about the people living in Punjab villages or Punjabi culture. For anyone looking to me moved by a social issue, this movie is not for you. I'd suggest you watch Ramta Jogi.

The movie is just too long with unnecessary scenes, plot points, sub plots & unnecessary characters. They could have easily made the movie at least 30 mins shorter. For example there is Racial Discrimination scene in the movie. Its just shows the movie was trying to do too much. Some scenes have nothing to do with the progress of story and are added for no reason.

A major surprise in the movie was reviled too early and for me that spoiled all the fun. If they had kept it till the end the viewer would have better enjoyed it. In the end the movie just missed a great opportunity to becoming something truly amazing.