If one wishes to watch a movie with no histrionics but at the same time witness emotions raging from life’s travails then this is the movie to watch.
The main theme of the movie is how most of us in adolescent age get caught in a web of emotions and allow them to grow with us even as adults and then spoil our lives living within the realms of our own creation of an unreal and an unpleasant world. In fact most of us can identify ourselves with the main character in the film. This is one of the reasons why this film might be a runaway hit, but requires a matured audience.
Coming to the various elements of this film much needs to be said.
The acting prowess of Alia Bhatt is something to watch to be believed. At her young age she showed nothing short of brilliance in her portraying the character of the troubled adult caught up in a web of negative emotions due to certain incidents involving her parents and herself at a tender age of 6 years. Oh my.. what a portrayal!! The raging emotions she exhibits while in a family together is nothing short of an award winning performance. We are not sure how many takes it took for Alia to pull of this splendid performance but the end result is it had the desired impact on the audience. At the end of the scene I could myself feel the relief from venting off the pent up emotions. There was no screaming, no unnecessary movement of the body it was just expressions of the eyes and the tone of her voice that beautifully captured the whole trauma she was undergoing all those years. Here is where most Indian cinema portray histrionics to no end but in this movie there is a restrain and yet beautifully captured.
Shah Rukh Khan for the first time, after becoming super star, has confined himself to very few scenes in the film but very important ones. He is the, “Brain Doctor” the term used in the film for a psychological therapist. He portrays his role beautifully as usual. His introduction in the film was also very casual and informal I should say. We hear his voice first answering a question in a conference in which Alia hears and gets attracted to it (the words torn jeans by Shah Rukh Khan attracts Alia) as she is in the next door and then as she comes in and peeps through the door we get a glimpse of the first shot of the super star. Some dialogues of Shah Rukh Khan in the movie are worthwhile taking a message back home.
“Don’t let the past blackmail your present and spoil your future” is highlight of the movie. Another highlight is when he says to Alia, “Do not put your parents on a high pedestal. Think of them as normal human beings who can make mistakes” The shot when Alia hears this statement and lightens and brightens up is very well executed by the director of the film Gauri Shinde who is also the writer of the film and co-producer as well.
The sequences in the film of these two actors together builds the tempo and the audience can literally follow through the progress Alia is making in gaining a new perspective of life. Towards the end one can see the sparks in the eyes of Alia as she realizes her folly.
The scene where Alia plays kabbadi with the sea waves (as Shah Rukh Khan showed her in when she asks him about his childhood memories and relives his childhood days with his father playing kabbadi with sea waves) is excellently shot and audience literally lighten up after going through the trauma along with Alia.
After a long time we have matured film from the India cinema fraternity and it is truly worth watching with family.
Hats off to Gauri Shinde, Shah Rukh Khan and above all Ali Bhatt for her excellent performance.