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It’s no longer a secret that writer-director R.Balki’s film Chup: Revenge of the Artist hit the headlines. One of the reasons Chup resonates with audiences (and critics) is that it manages to send chills down the viewer’s spine with its chilling murders.
For a suspenseful film like this, it’s very important to get the aesthetic of the bloody murders displayed in a believable and striking way.
“Constructed Killings”
In an interview, R. Balki says that “Unlike most films, these are engineered murders. By that I mean it’s about how I kill them. It is almost a work of art, murder as art. To do that, you need an artist—not just a makeup artist or a prosthetic—but someone who really understands.”
Of course, none of the cutting and maiming is real in the fictional world. “Designing kills, something I’ve never done before, is as challenging as designing characters,” says National Award winner Preetisheel Singh D’souza, who created all those cuts, slashes, bodies and organs. that you see in the movie.
Preetisheel explains that since there are different types of murders that happen in the film and every murder has a story, the murders have to be very clean and done in an artistic way to match the theme of the film. They had to express the story behind them, she says.
The back story
Not many know that as part of research for the film, Preetisheel and her team at Da Makeup Lab visited places like JJ Hospital, met some doctors and checked the fine details of the bodies, organs and more.
“In the film we depicted very clean cuts, a stabbing to the neck, a normal kind of stabbing, we had a very complex piece of silicone that went over the whole body for a depiction of a murder in an art gallery. We also did a lot of body organs, like a heart and a liver and a lot of intestines,” informed the make-up and prosthetics wizard.
R. Balki notes: “I have no mention of such murders anywhere else. These are new murders I can think of. So I told her (Preeetisheel) that there will be no VFX on this particular film. I want to do everything live. And she did an amazing job.”
“Artistic murders – this is the first time I’ve heard of such a thing,” smiles Pretishiel, who has a very high opinion of R. Balki as a creative director. Talking about the film, she adds that it is a completely different masterpiece created by R. Balki and very different from his other films.
Da Makeup Lab catches the eye again
Preetisheel, along with her partner-husband Mark D’souza, runs the state-of-the-art hair, makeup and prosthetics studio Da Makeup Lab (DML) in Mumbai’s elite Versova neighborhood. When it comes to makeup and prosthetics, many of the top directors in Bollywood have relied on her artistry and character design.
DML has provided its services to some of the who’s who of Bollywood, including superhit films like Bajirao Mastani, Padmaavat, Housefull 4, Chhichhore, 102 Not Out, Gangubai Kathiawadi and Pushpa: The Rise. The studio is now working on the sequel to Pushpa as well as the upcoming Shah Rukh Khan film Jawan.
Rave reviews
Meanwhile, Chup is being touted as a brutally honest and haunting psychological thriller by R.Balki. The narrative has its own beauty and the tight screenplay ensures that the audience is glued to the screens from the very beginning. The interval block and climactic sequences are hailed as first class. The serial killer and his various activities are depicted with a finesse that would make one cringe. What’s more, references to yesteryear maestro Guru Dutt’s classic Kagaz Ke Phool are interwoven cleverly and very effectively with the narrative.
“It’s a strange mix that comes together well. Gruesome, barbaric murders, but also the bigger picture in which cinema is a celebration,” veteran journalist and editor Bharathi Pradhan wrote in his review of Leheren.
India Today’s review by Roktim Rajpal is titled “Film critics beware. You are about to lose your organs. “Given the genre, violence is an integral part of the narrative. None of the scenes try to shock the audience,” it said, praising the film.
However, film critic Saima Parveen makes a rather controversial statement in Maps of India when she writes, “The unique and exciting plot of the film may attract the audience. The film is watchable, but those who shun violence will have to wait for another film.
“There is a scene that closes the first half where he (the artist) kills one of his victims by carving a specific artistic design into their body. In the way it’s shot and executed, it’s a rare shining moment of gloriously disturbing violence…” says film reviewer Suchin Mehrotra in Hindustan Times.
I felt quite heavy, says Dulquer Salmaan
Even actor Dulquer Salmaan, who stars alongside Sunny Deol and Shreya Dhanwanthary in R.Balki’s outstanding slasher-thriller, says he finds the killing scenes “definitely disturbing”.
In an interview with The Telegraph, he noted: “Every time I cut somebody, it has to be convincing. And to make it convincing, I had to believe it was real. We put all the kill scenes together and shot them all at once, and that was the hardest part for me. I didn’t want to date anyone at that time. I told all my friends that I was on a break from dating them. Also, I talk a lot in these scenes and had to memorize a lot of lines. I felt quite heavy during those shooting days.”
Dulquer adds, “But that was nothing compared to my co-actors that my character was cutting. They wore heavy make-up and prosthetics and had to sit on set for hours. I would feel genuine concern for them.”
Attention to small details
Prosthetic expert Preetisheel Singh D’souza says, “It was a privilege to work for this film. Balki Sir is a visionary and his style of filmmaking always brings something new to the table and touches the right chords with the audience.”
“Bodies were an integral part of this film. Unlike in the past, today we witness many harsh realities that somehow find their way onto the internet. So if a movie doesn’t portray reality in a very believable way, the audience may find the scenes ridiculous. We paid a lot of attention to minor details when designing the bodies and cuts for the kill sequences in the film,” she informs.
Mark D’Souza adds that “Chup has finally got everyone, including the critics, talking – that too, positively. This means a lot to us at Da Makeup Lab. See, the film combines the genre of suspense-thriller with romance and dark humor. When people come forward and say that the murders gave us goosebumps, that’s a huge compliment to our prosthetics efforts.”
Ah, indeed. Critics and even audiences have only good things to say about Chup. The film has reached a benchmark for intelligent and intriguing filmmaking and that speaks volumes for everyone associated with it.
Not to forget, it also marks a revival of sorts for the Hindi film industry after the #BoycottBollywood trend as it emerges as the first successful film after the very tough times the industry has witnessed in the past few months.
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