Chengiz is essentially a gangster drama featuring a notorious criminal who did rule the city of Calcutta from the 1970s to the early 90s. The story is not quite novel, however I couldn’t help but think that this was mass done right. I have always maintained that constructing a mass masala entertainer can be a tricky proposition. The focus must always be on the world building and the storytelling as opposed to completely celebrating the stardom of an actor. And luckily, Chengiz does the former and really well! The screenplay standing at around 150 minutes does make for an entertaining and compelling gangster drama where the focus always was on the storytelling.

The drama does open with an ongoing football match. This for me was a fresh opening, I mean when was the last time that you did notice a football game as the opening sequence for a gangster drama? Also, with football being an integral culture of Calcutta(and West Bengal), it did add texture to the drama regarding the setting as well. Suddenly an explosion follows and you are introduced to the protagonist walking through the smoke in grand style. The turn of events trigger a series of flashbacks told by a now retired police officer to a journalist on the journey of the protagonist, from his childhood days to eventually turning into Chengiz. While the basic plot of the film might be a sort of a revenge drama to begin with, the events unfolding have the right kind of emotions attached to it. And that is what makes this mass masala entertainer hit home!

The proceedings are entertaining and engrossing despite the fact that the events are partly disjointed at several places. The events do work independently really well given the fact that they are layered. The character dynamics are really interesting here which is a core ingredient for a gangster drama. The drama is consistently on the move and it doesn’t quite get stuck at any point. The world building was fascinating and it did act as a foundation for the film. But there were several interesting situations that did fuel the narrative ahead. Ideally, I would still have liked a few more twists and turns in the story which is fairly predictable otherwise, it still does have a lot of meat. On a side note, the love story again doesn’t quite connect as in all mass masala entertainers.

One criticism that I had about the writing would be that there aren’t many high points in the drama that more or less does unfold at the sane wavelength. Had that happened, the drama would have been even more interesting. Having said that, the events leading up to the final act are excellent including a terrific 15 minute gun battle that was nail biting stuff. The end was a tad underwhelming given how some strings are left open for possibly a second part but overall I really did like the screenplay wherein there was a genuine effort of storytelling.