The word ‘Khallas’ is supposed to mean to finish off someone else or it might even mean deliverance. It is a word which is associated with criminals, gangsters, supari killers or a gangster film when we are discussing films. Therefore when a film called Khallas comes, it is sure to suprise us specially when it is a Bengali film.
A couple of weeks posters had been put all over Kolkata of a film called Khallas. The poster had evoked curiosity because the poster looked cool, had a suprise element and one couldn’t be sure whether it was a Hindi or a Bengali film. Therefore when it turns out to be a very low budget Bengali film with no stars , it leaves you surprised and makes you wonder how they can afford posters like that? On top of that, it is mentioned as ‘A film by Bappaditya Chattapadhyay’ , not our Bappaditya Bandopadhyay and so you keep on wondering.
Khallas, a film by Bappaditya Chattapadhyay turns out to be indeed about supari killers and criminals. It is about Raja who is a sharp shooter and a contract killer. He and his friends work for Lalji who supplies some kind of goods which are of inferior quaity to Ramanath Sen,a businessman and as a result he is blacklisted. Lalji decides to take revenge by making Raja kidnap Rani, Ramanath’s daughter . However Raja is the man of Rani’s dreams and she goes along with Raja without knowing he is kidnapping her. Raja even hatches a plot and gets married to her, but then what happens thereafter? Does he actually fall in love with her or does he bump her off?
The film has no no known faces to speak of barring Bodhisatwa Majumdar and the late Sunil Mukherjee( in a bit role). It is left to newcomers Shaan and Payel to carry the film on their shoulders and it is next to impossible for them. Shaan doesn’t have the looks of a contract killer/sharp shooter/someone who takes supari and just can’t create any such image. However a couple of songs of the film are okay. The saving grace of the film is jatra actor Tridib Ghosh as Lalji. However nothing can be worse than the other release of the week, Chhoan which is one of the worst films ever made featuring known actors/actresses in lead roles.
The most interesting thing about this film is whenever certain situations arise, the lead pair(with a clean shaven Shaan!) start singing popular Hindi songs with them dressed exactly in the manner in which the actual actors/actresses from those Hindi films had been dressed in those films.