REVIEW 448: DEAR ZINDAGI

Release date:	US: November 23, 2016. India: November 25, 2016.
Director:	Gauri Shinde
Cast: Language:	Alia Bhatt, Shah Rukh Khan, Kunal Kapoor, Ali Zafar, Ira Dubey, Yashaswini Dayama, Rohit Saraf, Aban Deohans, Atul Kale, Angad Bedi, Aditya Roy Kapur Hindi

Two points. Dear Zindagi is clearly straining at the formula-ridden Bollywood straitjacket to give us a refreshing take on love and family, and for the most part it sticks to its guns. In the end, it does succumb to the pressure to bow to perceived public demand with passing mentions of what we have come to consider inevitable in every Hindi film, but the ride up to that point is so rewarding so often that it is tempting to look past those needless moments.

Writer-director Gauri Shinde’s Dear Zindagi comes four years after her remarkable debut with English Vinglish. If that film brought the charismatic Sridevi back to the big screen as a leading lady after a 15-year hiatus, this one redefines the concept of hero and heroine in Hindi cinema.

Dear Zindagi revolves around Kaira (Alia Bhatt), a talented young cinematographer in Mumbai who despises her parents, appears confident in her romantic relationships yet is ridden with insecurities about the men she is drawn to. Those insecurities lead her to deliberately hurt her boyfriends before they get a chance to hurt her. It does not take a degree in psychology for a viewer to figure out her behaviour patterns, but Kaira is naturally confused by her fears. She ends up seeking professional help, and with some wise counsel, finds her answers herself.

When one of the biggest stars in the history of Bollywood appears on screen about 40 minutes after the opening credits, it goes without saying that this is an extremely unconventional film. Bhatt’s Kaira is the focal point of the story from start to finish whereas Shah Rukh Khan – playing her therapist Dr Jehangir Khan – surfaces towards the latter part of the first half and is nowhere to be seen in the concluding scene.

In a male-obsessed industry still tending to subordinate women in most mainstream projects, this is a decision that shows guts on Shinde’s part and Khan’s evident willingness to experiment. That other MegaKhan, Aamir, took a similar gamble with rewarding results in Taare Zameen Par (2007), and this is a winning aspect of Dear Zindagi too.

SRK gets less screen time but owns every scene he is a part of. In fact, Doc Jehangir enters the picture just as the film is sagging and appears to be repeating itself. His arrival immediately lifts Dear Zindagi. It sags again occasionally thereafter, but never when he is around. Besides, there is such warmth in Kaira’s interactions with the Doc that it envelops the rest of the narrative too.

It is worth mentioning that Khan in this new phase of his career when he is acknowledging his age gracefully, showing us a dash of gray and a whiff of wrinkles, is looking hot.

Kaira explodes in anger at one point when someone describes her as a pataka (firecracker). Well, that’s precisely what Bhatt is – a pataka with pizzazz and verve. What makes her so impactful is that she has had an internal journey with each of her roles so far, and not so far allowed that journey to be overshadowed by her attractive personality. Kaira is simultaneously exasperating and endearing, and Bhatt remains in control of that difficult blend throughout.

Still, the film needed more matter to wrap around these two lovely stars, and Dear Zindagi too often does not. Some of that comes from the failure to build up the satellite characters who are Kaira’s go-to people in times of need. We get that she is pre-occupied with her own emotional struggles to the point of not noticing their problems, but that is no excuse for the writing to neglect them too.

Who is Fatima (Ira Dubey) beyond being a mature, married friend? Who is Jackie (Yashaswini Dayama) beyond being a sweet, supportive, possibly younger friend? Who and what is that chubby male colleague beyond being chubby and funny? Who is her brother Kiddo (Rohit Saraf) whom she loves, beyond being her brother Kiddo whom she loves? Who and what are her boyfriends Sid (Angad Bedi), Raghuvendra (Kunal Kapoor) and Rumi (Ali Zafar) beyond being a good-looking restaurateur, a good-looking producer and a good-looking musician?

(Spoiler alert begins) And then there are those two oh-no moments towards the end – you know the kind that make you say, “Oh no, you too Dear Zindagi”? One of them seems to go along with the traditional view that characters played by a major male star and a major female star must inevitably be attracted to each other if they interact long enough in a story; the other underlines the essentiality of a man in a woman’s life to make her feel complete. Both are fleeting suggestions, but they pull down the film’s assuredness about what it is trying to say until then. Oh no, you too Dear Zindagi? (Spoiler alert ends)

For this and other reasons the film is inconsistent and intermittently lightweight. Yet, there is much else to recommend in Dear Zindagi.

The use of music, Amit Trivedi’s breezy tunes and Kausar Munir’s conversational lyrics are lots of fun, as are Kaira’s many amusing interactions with her friends. DoP Laxman Utekar fills the film with pretty frames of Goa beyond what we are used to seeing of that picturesque state, and is just as imaginative in his focus on Khan and Bhatt’s faces. Watch out for the closing shots of Bhatt on a beach.

From an industry that usually treats parents as deities deserving to be worshipped, it is also unusual to get a story that does not ignore these gods’ feet of clay, especially considering that Dear Zindagi is co-produced by Karan “It’s All About Loving Your Parents” Johar.

Above all, it is nice to see a film making an effort to destigmatise patient-therapist interactions, in a portrayal far removed from the “paagalkhanas (lunatic asylums)” of an earlier Bollywood era. 

Dear Zindagi then is a mixed bag. I loved SRK in the film, Bhatt is always a pleasure to watch, the story visits many themes that are uncommon in Bollywood, and several of the discussions are either witty or insightful or both. Overall though, the film comes across as being not enough because the writing needed more substance.

Dear Gauri Shinde,

You broke the mould with the delightful English Vinglish. Since you have defied convention in so many ways this time round too, you may as well have gone the entire distance without worrying about the consequences. We believe in you. Please do have faith in our faith in you.

Regards,

A genuine well-wisher.

Rating (out of five stars): **1/2

CBFC Rating (India):	UA
Running time:	149 minutes 53 seconds

This review has also been published on Firstpost:

http://www.firstpost.com/bollywood/dear-zindagi-movie-review-incredibly-cute-alia-shah-rukh-khan-need-a-more-consistent-script-3123586.html

Poster courtesy: https://www.facebook.com/DearZindagi/

REVIEW 374: TERE BIN LADEN – DEAD OR ALIVE

Release date:	February 26, 2016
Director:	Abhishek Sharma
Cast: Language:	Manish Paul, Pradhuman Singh, Sikandar Kher, Piyush Mishra, Mia Uyeda, Sugandha Garg, Rahul Singh, Iman Crosson Hindi

Every once in a while a film comes along that is truly ordinary yet worth watching anyway because of one actor alone or only the cinematography or just the amazing costumes or some such. That unfortunate and rare distinction goes this week to Abhishek Sharma’s Tere Bin Laden – Dead or Alive.

This spin-off from 2010’s sleeper hit Tere Bin Laden – which made Pakistani singer Ali Zafar an acting star in Bollywood – features Manish Paul as Sharma, a struggling director who makes a film with an Osama bin Laden lookalike called Paddi Singh (Pradhuman Singh). A series of twists and turns follow, including the killing of the real Osama in Abbottabad by American Navy Seals. US President Barack Obama is in trouble when his country’s media demands proof that OBL is actually dead. Meanwhile, in another corner of the world, terrorists are mourning the loss of their leader and the consequent loss of business.

Obama’s aide, pretending to be an Indian American Hollywood producer called David Chaddha, pursues Sharma and Paddi to make a feature film on OBL. In truth what he wants is to shoot the actor being killed during a re-creation of the Abbottabad mission, so that the fake video and photographs can be presented to US journalists.

Team Sharma-Paddi become hot property when they find themselves abducted by terrorists who want to shoot a fake video message from Osama’s doppelganger, this one to embarrass the US and convince the world that the man is very much alive.

This is the kind of storyline that could have bred a fabulously hilarious two hours of non-stop nonsense. Don’t know about you, but some of us sometimes need to let our hair down and laugh at nothingness. Except that in this instance, something goes wrong in the journey from concept to film, and try as Team Tere Bin Laden might, they barely manage to be amusing. Except…

Except when Obama and Chaddha are in the picture. More on that later.

It is not that the rest are not trying. Some of them ham till kingdom come, others act. Manish makes do with widening his eyes to Sridevi-like proportions. Pradhuman looks alarmingly like OBL and provides the occasional laugh with his take on a folk singer pretending to be an actor playing the world’s most dread terrorist. Everyone else throws themselves into their characters with a gusto for which they must definitely be lauded. All the energy and enthusiasm in the world is not sufficient compensation though for the absence of that X factor, that magical ingredient that transforms stupidity into comedy, that unnameable element that is born when the right writing meets the right direction. Except…

Except of course in the scenes involving Obama and Chaddha, when everything inexplicably seems to fall into place. Such are the mysterious ways of cinema.

It almost feels like a spoiler to tell you who plays Chaddha if you do not already know from the promotions, because he is so believable as a deliberately over-the-top white man disguised as an equally deliberately over-the-top Indian that the actor himself becomes invisible in the role. In fact, he is so good as a pretend gora that he makes up for all those terrible white extras Bollywood has thrust upon us in film after film for years.

(Spoiler ahead) Sikandar Kher is not merely good, he is brrrrrilliant as a devious blonde white American who dons body padding, a wig and a device that switches his accent from Yankee twang to guttural Punjabi baritone at the turn of a knob. For those who don’t know, Sikandar (who has dropped his surname for this film) is Kirron Kher’s son from her first marriage. He made his debut in 2008 as the lead in two films, the critically slammed Woodstock Villa and a highly under-rated, poorly publicised, well-made Hindi film called Summer 2007 directed by Suhail Tatari. Both sank without a trace and in the intervening years he has appeared in marginal roles in so few films that it is safe to say he disappeared into oblivion. It is a wonder why, because his talent and engaging screen presence were evident from Day 1.

As a US government official, Sikandar is more white and more American than most white people have ever been, and as Chaddha he shows us how it is possible to laugh with a community instead of laughing at them. A lesser actor might have been so weighed down by the accents and make-up as to not bother to add anything more to his performance. Sikandar is not that lesser actor. His comic timing, his body language and his investment in this madcap role are all 100 per cent on target.

While the rest of the cast around him struggles with the limited material at hand, he gets able backing from African American actor Iman Crosson whose crackling imitation of Obama could bring the White House down. It is not that Iman looks like the US President – all he has going for him on that front are that he too is black and tall – but his mimicry is so spot-on that you completely forget how he is actually a much broader man than the real POTUS.  

Together, they – and the film’s mockery, through them, of the extent to which the US will go to maintain its global supremacy – save the day for this otherwise disappointing film.

It is only fair to point out that Tere Bin Laden 2 is not crude or distasteful in the manner of low-brow comedies we have seen emerging from Bollywood in the past. It is just proof – since so many people seem to need proof – that comedy is one of the hardest things to achieve in the arts.

If you must watch this film, watch it for Sikandar and Iman. If Sikandar’s poor visibility in Bollywood is due to a lack of trying, then it is his choice, but if it is due to a lack of roles, then the loss is totally ours. As for Iman…how I wish more Bollywood writers would write scripts that require the casting of an African American actor. He and Sikandar are a hoot and the only reason why Tere Bin Laden – Dead or Alive is not a complete write-off.  

Rating (out of five stars): **

CBFC Rating (India):	UA
Running time:	110 minutes

Poster courtesy: https://www.facebook.com/TereBinLaden/