May 19,2018
Starring: Manoj Pahwa, Seema Bhargava, Vinay Pathak, Dolly Ahluwalia; Written
and Directed by Harsh Chhaya; Rating: *** (3 Stars).
It was John Donne
who warned Death not to be proud. In our popular arts we tend to get intimidated
by Death, we sing and recite poems about how powerful Death can be. We are
scared.
But guess what? Lord Yama can be quite funny too, specially in
the way he brings out the avaricious opportunist in the relatives of the one at
Death's Door.
That fine actor Harsh Chhaya has boldly gone where hardly
any director has gone before. Recently there was the Marathi film "Ventilator"
that went down the same path of mortal salvation but got lost in an atmosphere
of escalating self-importance, including an unnecessary guest appearance by the
film's producer Priyanka Chopra.
In "Khajoor Pe Atke" the film's director
Harsh Chhaya, once a well-known television actor makes a self-deprecatory
appearance questioning the validity of fame, and hence the meaning of mortality,
a theme that runs through the film in shudders and giggles creating for the
cornucopia of characters a carnival of outrageous emotions right there in the
hospital lobby.
Two brothers played with wise witticism by Manoj Pahwa
and Vinay Pathak have descended with their families at the hospital. The family
has other things in mind. Mumbai is a place associated with easy dating and
harmless flirting by the youngsters in the family. They behave with an
inappropriateness to the solemn occasion that would make Varun Dhawan's
character in "October" cringe in protest.
Sensitivity is not a big
plus-point for Harsh Chhaya's characters. These are relatable middleclass
characters totally immersed in self-fulfilment feigning concern for the dying.
It is not an unknown scenario in our working class atmosphere where self-concern
comes before any other concern. While the two brothers and their melodramatic
sister played with screechy candour by Dolly Ahluwalia (every family has one of
those) try to behave with suitable solemnity oneA mother(Seema Pahva,
delightfully scheming and harassed) gets into fixing a suitable match for her
daughter right there in the hospital corridor.
All the while the ailing
man's wife seeks comfort in food, nibbling on cakes and sandwiches with a vigour
that onlookers find distasteful, given the circumstances.
But who is to
decide what is wrong and what is right when someone is dying?
Chhaya
milks the satirical potential with relish. At times the mood of mirth and social
critique threaten to fall apart as a dark underbelly to the tone of ongoing
respiratory bacchanalia reveals itself. At one point a daughter of the family
(Sanah Kapoor) almost gets violated by a man she has befriended on the
internet.The boys in the family stare at the girls on the streets and even get
beaten up for it.
This a world devoured by a cheesy self-interested and
salvaged by a humour that only the outsiders can see. Harsh Chhaya provides a
singeing view of the rapidly-degenerating entity known as the Indian Middleclass
Joint Family.
Sooraj Barjatya's dreamscape of an idyllic "Hum Saath Saath
Hai" lies writhing on the ground as this small jagged-edged but enjoyable film
tells us that the Hum in the Saath Saath Hain could be the sound of cash
emerging from a pay machine.