Money in the drainpipe. That's the image I can't get out of my head. It's 2:14 AM and my room is dark except for the blue glow of my laptop, the Netflix menu for *Choked: Paisa Bolta Hai* staring back at me like a judgmental eye. I feel… grimy. But also kind of thrilled? I don't know. My brain is doing somersaults.
I watched it on Netflix, obviously. Where else would you watch a movie about a woman finding secret cash in her kitchen sink? It felt right, curled up on my couch, a half-eaten packet of Oreo lying next to me. The perfect, cozy setting for a story that is anything but. I needed the comfort of my own space, because the world on screen was so suffocating. So tense. I had to pause it twice just to go get a glass of water, my throat feeling as dry and constricted as Sarita's must have felt every single day.
So, this woman, Sarita. She's a bank employee, a former champion athlete, now just… existing. Trapped in a tiny Mumbai apartment with a deadbeat husband who's all talk and no action. And their kitchen sink is always clogged. It's this constant, gurgling reminder of their life, this blockage they can't fix. And then one day, she's had enough. She sticks her hand in the pipe, expecting to pull out a gross ball of hair and gunk. But she pulls out a wad of cash. A tight, damp roll of 500-rupee notes. I literally leaned forward so far I almost fell off the couch. I was like, "WHAT. NO WAY." It was so visceral, so disgusting and so incredibly tempting all at once. The sound of the wet notes hitting the metal pan… ugh, it's stuck in my head.
And the husband, Roshan. God, I wanted to reach through the screen and just shake him. This failed-actor-turned-day-trader who loses all their money and then has the audacity to act like he's the victim. He's always performing, even when he's just sitting on the couch. Saiyami Kher, who plays Sarita, is just a masterclass in silent fury. There's this one scene where he's going on and on about his big plans, and she's just chopping vegetables in the background. The camera is on him, but you can't take your eyes off her. The rhythm of the knife on the cutting board just gets faster and harder. It’s a whole monologue without saying a single word. I was gripping my pillow, just willing her to finally snap.
And then… BAM. Demonetization. The 2016 thing. I remember it so clearly. I was 15. I remember my dad coming home looking so stressed, standing in line for hours at the ATM just to get cash. The news was just a constant loop of panicked people and long queues. The movie captures that chaos perfectly. Suddenly, Sarita's secret stash from the drainpipe is worthless. It's just paper. I remember my dad trying to explain it to me, something about black money and the economy, and I just didn't get it. I just knew everyone was worried. Watching the movie, I felt that same confusion and panic all over again. It made the whole thing feel so real, so dangerously close to home. Anyway…
I thought I loved the first half. The gritty realism, the suffocating atmosphere, the sheer weirdness of the premise. But then the second half happens. It kind of turns into this… heist movie? With Sarita and her husband reluctantly teaming up? I thought I loved how their dynamic shifted, how they were forced to rely on each other. But now that I'm typing this… was it actually a bit silly? Did it undermine the powerful, quiet desperation of the first hour? I don't know. The ending felt a little too… neat? A little too much like a standard movie ending? I'm conflicted. My brain is telling me the tone was all over the place, but my gut loved watching them try to outsmart the system.
Honestly, watching it on Netflix at home added this weird layer of irony. I'm here in my comfortable room, complaining about the slow Wi-Fi, while I'm watching these characters literally drowning in debt and despair. I paused it right after the demonetization announcement to go make myself a cup of tea, just taking my sweet time, a luxury the characters on screen couldn't even fathom. The "Are you still watching?" popup came on right after this super tense, emotional scene, and it felt so jarringly normal. It was like the universe was reminding me that this was just a movie, that I could just turn it off and go to bed. But I couldn't. I had to see it through.
So yeah. It's a thriller. It's a marriage drama. It's a weird financial horror movie that's also a metaphor for the Indian economy? It's a lot. It’s messy and frustrating and sometimes brilliant. Saiyami Kher's face is going to haunt me for a while. And I'm never going to look at my kitchen sink the same way again. I feel like I need to go check my pipes now.
Okay, my brain is officially fried.
7/10. - decent
-Ishaan