People haven't forgotten Hansal Mehta for his last film, Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar (Don't take it to your heart, Dear). Chhal (Deception), his latest, has a different theme - delving deep into the life and minds of the mafia as well as police personnel.

 Little known KK (Menon) plays an undercover policeman and works his way into the underworld to get all the information about the mafia. He wins the trust of top gun mafia Shastri and his chieflackey, a dimunitive Girish (Prashant Narayan), by rescuing Padmini (Jaya Seal), his foster sister.        

        
           As part of the mafia he learns to do a lot of their jobs, besides winning the girl's heart and thereby landing in complications. He is fighting between his emotional involvement with the girl and the duty as a
cop.

           Inspector Karan soon realises he is as dispensable for the police as a spent cartridge, and finally decides to listen to the call of duty and not of conscience. There 's a showdown, an endless spraying of bullets and pile of blood-soaked bodies. Nobody knows what happens to the girl. They forget her altogether.

        -by Our Film Critic
August 9, 2002