Rehan Ali (Usman Raaj), a meek nobody with a mere matriculation degree, working as a lowly LDC (lower division clerk) at a government office, does the unthinkable: he single-handedly saves the department’s wiped-out computer database in a matter of hours — a feat deemed impossible by international consultants, who demanded millions for the job.

‘Impossible’, according to Rehan’s kind superior, is just a word that’s begging to be proven wrong… the fact that Rehan secretly holds a bachelor’s degree in electronics doesn’t hurt.

Chhu Le Aasman (CLA), which might have run its course in cinemas by the time you read this review, has, very surprisingly, more to its story than Rehan’s brief, nondescript career at the government office. He has aspirations that would, by the film’s end, nail him a spot on a wall that’s reserved for pictures of geniuses such as Albert Einstein.

Like all good men who hear a higher calling, Rehan shuns the idea of financial success; he is an innovator who sincerely wants to make something that would benefit the world — like craft an ingenious early warning system for earthquakes.

Chhu Le Aasman is the unexpected surprise of the season — one of the most well-written screen stories as far as low-budget/indie films go, and bristling with sincerity

The son of a stern government employee — a typist who lives for the status quo and shoots down conversations about religion and politics at home (talking cricket is fine in their house, by the way) — Rehan is affected by his mother’s grief after she lost her family in the 2005 earthquake that devastated the Northern Areas of Pakistan.

Inspired by the pressure cooker’s whistling nozzle, we learn from a long flashback that Rehan, along with his three friends at college and a girl they introduced into their group, had once designed an ingenious, early warning system that would detect earthquakes. Their design, they believed, would beat anything already in use by governments.

Then the unthinkable happened: the design was stolen and Rehan, inconsolable, wound up at the aforementioned LDC post, which was only open for matriculate individuals.

CLA has one of the most well-written screen stories as far as low-budget/indie films go (the screenplay itself is just okay). The film, with its slow-but-engaging pace, is bristling with sincerity. Amazingly, it’s safe from the high-brow, in-your-face pomposity of ‘message’ films that ultimately fail miserably in the storytelling department.

CLA, though, is not without its shortfalls. Its casting and acting are amateurish — the lead, Raaj, a model-turned-actor looks like Ray Romano and sounds like Aijazz Aslam, without the finesse of either — and the colour grade and exposure of shots slip in and out of consistency.

On the other hand, the editing, visual effects (very surprisingly) and the ableness of the direction — effective but not spectacular by any means — do help sell the story. There is even one song, Mann Rasiya, a romantic number that immediately captures your ears (it sounds like a Bollywood song that you may have heard before but can’t pinpoint).

CLA is a good-enough film that is made just as well. Pity no one noticed it at the box-office.

Directed by Khawar Malick, written by Malick, Haseeb Ajmal, Suleman Sunny, produced by Auj Media, Chhu Le Aasman is released by Metro Live Movies. The film is rated ‘U’ for Universal viewership

Published in Dawn, ICON, March 6th, 2022