A character in the film quotes
William Faulkner: The past is never dead. In fact, it is not even the past.
(Requiem for a Nun). To borrow yet again from the film: create good memories,
live good moments. So is it with the film, Gauri Shinde who takes off from the
promising English Vinglish.
Kaira (Aliya Bhat) is an aspiring Cinematographer dreaming to make the grade
and shoot an entire feature film. She is on the sets with Raghu (Kunal Kapoor)
who obviously is smitten by her. However, she is in a relationship with Sid
(Andghad Bidi). The relationship is however on the rocks when she announces
that she has slept with Raghu. The film tells the many moods and shades of grey
that go in the making in the life of Kaira. Since it is played by Aliya the
audience knows that she is likely to carry emotional baggage and that she does.
While she is the confident person willing to wear her heart on her sleeve, she
is also intolerant to the Mills and Boon romance and is hoping to ride on her
relationship and launch her career. In fact, she seems to say: they left me
living on the rack of memory (Erich Segal). She has judged her parents – don’t
most of this generation do that? She faults them for leaving her behind with
her maternal grandparents while they are in search of economic stability. She
lives with her friends Fatima (Ira Dubey) and Jackie (Yashwasini Dayama). She
makes her emotional demands and makes clear that she is often not in sync with
many a thing in and around her. She also understand that: nothing is more
desirable than to be released from an affliction but nothing is more frightening
than to be divested of a crutch (James Baldwin). Caught in this emotionally
chaotic region she is jilted by Raghu and is in a brief relationship with Rumi
(Ali Zafar- in a brief but impressive outing) she is frantically in search of
acceptance at home, at work and with her social circuit. She has it all, yet
not. Caught in an emotional low, she runs into a head shrinker in Jug (Shah
Rukh Khan) who helps her see life in the proper perspective. How she comes to
terms with the emotional challenges and how she exorcises the ghosts in the
dark patches of her personal life is what Gauri offers in her back to back
woman centric films. Unlike the earlier one this is more raw and is thus more
in sync with the times. Strangely is a slice of life moment and yet raw and
often soul wrenching. It raises issues without reaching the pulpit for example
it draws on how the middle-class parent is a ‘Marksist’ and expect their
children to be their trophies to be placed on the show case. The hurt the
bruises that the child carries through life and the burden it becomes is
essayed with such awesome ease by the protagonist that you believe that casting
is half the job done.
In fact, a major success in the film is the cast. We have the likes of Ira
Dubey, Yashwasiini Dayamma doing a fine job. We have a fine heart-warming
performance from Kunal Kapoor who has such a wonderful screen presence. He
gives his role a lot of meat though the script does not. It is so nice seeing
him in a film. Then there is Shahrukh Khan – believe it or not, not hamming!!
Gauri Shinde joins the elite club (Ashutosh Gowarikar and Shimit Amin) who keep
the star on leash. Here too Gauri Shinde pulls it off or nearly does. For a
good part of the film he allows Aliya to steal the thunder. His linens are
specifically worth mentioning. Some fine cinematography (Lakshman Utekar)
decisively outside the clichéd Goa adds a rich texture to the narrative.
The film however truly belongs to Aliya Bhatt: the seamless shift of the
various moods that is so central to the spirit of the tale finds in Alia Bhatt.
An artist who with consummate ease is not only a picture perfect alibi to the
calls of the script but is backed with an ability to translate without much ado
the range of the emotional swing. Like a veteran, she pulls off every facet of
the person: daring, yet dispirited, spirited yet melancholic, happy yet sad,
angry but beaten, warm yet suspicious, outgoing but a cocooned introvert – she
surveys the entire gamut and portrays every emotion in the right dose. She does
not just add credibility she lifts its intensity. But then, as the psychiatrist
says, life is unfair and so is the film that endlessly meanders for a good
while before Shah Rukh enters the script. The film is worth watching for those
who have the stomach to take issues of our times and are willing to invest
thought along with time at the theatre.
Rating: 3 stars
+ Alia Bhatt
– A script that doesn’t justify 149 minutes.
L. Ravichander.