Vishal Furia’s Chhorii 2 suffers from the same old problem of movie franchises trying to extend the storyline without having anything interesting or authentic to offer. The film followed the same pattern that it set in Part 1, the only difference being that instead of female feticide, the subject matter it dealt with this time around was child marriage. I mean, India as a country is a trove of stories. We are so rich when it comes to culture and literature, but for unknown reasons, the filmmakers just abstain from tapping into that treasure. Chhorii 2 had the potential of being a good film, but the mundane plot and the ineffective conflicts made the film an underwhelming affair. That said, let’s find out what happened in the film and if Sakshi was able to overcome the conflicts that came her way.
Spoiler Alert
What happened to Sakshi’s daughter?
It had been seven years since that horrific incident that took place in Rajbir’s village, but Sakshi still feared that one day somebody would come and harm her daughter Ishani. It was such a traumatic incident that neither Sakshi nor Rani, who had started living with the former, felt at ease. After Sakshi and Rani escaped from the village in Part 1, they went and reported what had happened to the local police station. Inspector Samar, who met with the women, came with them to the village to check if what they were saying was true or not. Rajbir’s body wasn’t found there, and even his parents were missing from the scene. Samar realized the gravity of the matter, and he asked a pregnant Rani and Sakshi to stay at his place. With time he developed a very strong emotional bond with Sakshi, and when Sakshi’s daughter, Ishani, had to be admitted to the school, it was Samar who asked the school authorities to put his name down as her father. I don’t know if Samar and Sakshi were just friends or if they were romantically involved too, but they both cared for each other as their own. Ishani had developed a sort of allergy where the moment her skin came in contact with direct sunlight, it started burning. The poor girl couldn’t go to school, and nor could she go out and play like other kids, but that didn’t discourage her. In fact, it made her more curious about everything that she saw. Sakshi always felt that because they had never found Rajbir’s body, it was possible that he was still alive. Sakshi’s worst fears came true when, one day, a group of men arrived at her place and abducted Rani and Ishani. With Samar’s help, Sakshi was able to figure out that one of the men in that group was the sarpanch, i.e., the panchayat president of Rajbir’s village. Sakshi and Samar decided to immediately leave for the village and find Ishani before the men did anything to her.
What did Pradhan want?
Sakshi reached the exact location where she had suffered a lifetime of trauma. Suddenly a bunch of kids arrived at the scene and started pelting Sakshi, Samar, and the policemen with stones. While Samar was trying to defend himself, Sakshi was taken away by the villagers to a hidden underground chamber. It came to be known that Rajbir and the village leader, who was addressed as tau, wanted to kill Sakshi and set an example so that no other woman could ever dare to go against them. But they wanted to do something else with Ishani. There was a supernatural entity living in those underground tunnels. He was called Pradhan, and it was believed that all the villagers were his descendants, which made him a prehistoric man. This man was not doing well, and the sarpanch believed that that brought bad luck to the entire village. The custom was that a girl child was married to this old man, which apparently kept him happy and satisfied. There was one condition, though: the girl child needed to have a sun allergy like Ishani did, as it was likely the old man also suffered from such a condition.
But in the near past, no girl child was able to survive his wrath. And so the quest to find a suitable girl who could bear all the torture and get married to Pradhan had led the village people to Sakshi’s daughter. The Pradhan already had a wife, though, who was called Dasi and who also had certain supernatural powers. Dasi’s role was to assess the girl to see if she was ready for marriage. Generally, the very next day after a girl got her period, she was married to Pradhan. Dasi was not a bad human being per se, but the tragedy was that she too didn’t raise her voice against the oppression, even when she herself had gone through the same torture. Hundreds of girls had died in front of her, but the woman still believed in the age-old traditions. It was quite unlikely for Dasi, but she did develop a soft corner for Ishani in the brief time she was with her. Dasi told Ishani a story, which I believe was her own life story. She said that there was once a king who prayed to the Sun to give him a child. One day, the king’s wife gave birth to a daughter, but the king, instead of becoming happy, went and asked the Sun to take her back since he always wanted a boy. The Sun felt humiliated, and he decided to let the little girl burn in its heat. That’s when a prince of the darkness, who I believed was the Pradhan, took the child with him. Pradhan waited for the child to be old enough and then got married to her. I believe that Dasi has been living with Pradhan since then, and time and again she and other village dwellers have brought little girls to quench the old man’s thirst and keep him happy.
Was Sakshi able to save her daughter?
Sakshi was chained up in one of the underground tunnels, and she was mercilessly beaten by Rajbir. Rajbir also killed Rani for defying their customs. Sakshi ideally would have succumbed to her injuries, but just like in Chhorii 1, the power of all the women who had been tortured came inside her, and she could finally give Rajbir a taste of his own medicine. When Rajbir came to take her with the intention of beheading her in front of the entire village, Sakshi retaliated in full force. She was able to get the better of Rajbir and finally make him meet his fateful end. Sakshi then went to save her daughter, and she confronted Dasi quite fearlessly.
During Chhorii 2’s ending, Dasi realized that what she had been doing was not right. She felt empathetic for those women who had gone through so much. Sakshi and Dasi together were able to overpower the old, lecherous Pradhan, and escape from the underground chambers together with Ishani. By that point, Samar, who was on the lookout for Sakshi, had been able to call for reinforcements and take all the village dwellers, together with the sarpanch, into custody. But then something unexpected happened, and in the spur of the moment, Sakshi showed a lot of grit and, without batting an eye, put her life in jeopardy.
Is Sakshi Dead Or Alive?
In Chhorii 2’s ending, Sakshi, Dasi, and Ishani were coming out from the well, which led to the underground chambers, when the former felt a pull. She saw that her leg was chained and that somebody was pulling her back into the chambers. She knew that it was the old Pradhan, who didn’t want to let her leave. Pradhan wanted to teach Sakshi a lesson, and the latter also knew that if she didn’t kill him, then he would keep torturing poor girls and making them his victims. Sakshi went back to the underground chamber while Dasi and Ishani waited for her outside. I believe that Dasi will stay with Ishani and take good care of her until her mother comes back. As for Sakshi, there are three possibilities: either Sakshi meets her fateful end, or she manages to kill Pradhan and escape from there, or she is kept captive by Pradhan in those underground chambers. Seeing the pattern followed by the two films, I believe that the makers will opt for a convenient route where in Chhorii 3 (presuming there is one), we will find out that Sakshi had killed the personification of a demon and come out victorious. Though what I hope is that the makers really work on the storyline and bring something authentic for the audience the next time.
