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Friday, April 19, 2024
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BOLLYWOOD TURNING 30!!!
EDITOR'S PICK
Rating: ***
It`s that sassy, spunky, urbane chick mouthing that `f` word
again! Last week it was Rani Mukerji in "No One Killed Jessica". This
time it`s the delightfully spontaneous Gul Panag, who`s playing a working-girl
in an ad agency and is on the verge of 30. But things are not quite working out
for her and she is watching her life come apart at the seams.
This is "Sex & The City" transposed to Mumbai.
Abandoned by her well-to-do boyfriend, Naina weeps with unabashed self-pity in
front of the bathroom mirror and pleads, begs and whines with him to "take
her back".
In one of the film`s best sequences, Naina`s ex-boyfriend comes home to collect
his things. Gul Panag`s body language and her desperate attempts to provoke him
into emotional and sexual submission echoed Shabana Azmi`s celebrated `party`
sequence in Mahesh Bhatt`s "Arth" where she pleaded with her husband
to take her back.
"Is she better in bed," Gul asks with poignant aggression.
The problem, you realize in telling the tale of an urban girl`s adventures in
the big bad city is the language. While debutante director Alankrita Shrivastava,
in control of her narration and characters, gets the mood right, the dialogues
often appear to be straining for effect.
Which woman of today, hitting on a guy in a bar or for that matter anywhere,
uses a term like "fuddy-duddy"?
The chick flick, as it is rather crudely called, is an alien genre in Bollywood.
The first time director gets the tone and spirit of urban female bonding far
more accurately than in the recent "Aisha". "Turning 30"
goes for the inner wear-and-tear.
The music is loud and played at just the right decibel. The characters seem to
be grooving in rhythm most of the time.
Once Purab Kohli makes a late entry into Naina`s life, the film kind of loses
its ebullient spirit. The narrative gets lazy and Naina`s 30th birthday party
just goes on and on… Naina and her friends play `truth or dare` where two
girls confess they`re lesbians… and there is laughter, acceptance and warm
hugs.
But at the end of it all, we do care about what happens to Naina`s adrift life.
How Naina gets back her groove makes an interesting if at times sluggish story.
The situations created in the script appear straight out of the urbane chaos of
designer labels and self-preserving image-creation... The narrative has an
endearing fluidity and fluency to it. Girls here wanna have fun.
The unabashed references to the protagonist`s sex life and physicality are new
to Hindi cinema. Gul Panag plays Naina with a disarming mix of transparency and
confusion. She lets the character`s strength and vulnerability hang out in the
same line of vision, creating a world that is at once lived-in and unexplored.
It`s a wonderful experience just watching Gul light up the screen once again
after "Dhoop" and "Dor".
The supporting actors are all like people you`ve bumped into in Mumbai in an
elevator or while waiting in line to get into a multiplex to watch a film like
"Turning 30".
New cinematographer Akshay Singh shoots the characters in a way that they appear
in a far better light than they would otherwise. Fresh, feisty and well-designed
with above-average technical virtues, "Turning 30" is more chic than a
`chick flick`.
`Turning 30!!!`: an insight into a woman`s psyche (IANS Preview)
Aging skin, fading glow, white streaks in the hair and uncertainty - audiences will get to taste a slice of life in Turning 30!!! that talks about women either hitting a subconscious halt or turning a new leaf at the milestone age.
Produced by Prakash Jha, the light-hearted outing is the
directorial debut of Alankita Srivastav, who has been a long-time assistant to
Jha.
With former beauty queen Gul Panag in the lead, the young urban woman-centric
love story also features Purab Kohli in a pivotal role. Made at a budget of
Rs.3.5 crore, the film will hit over 125 screens Friday.
Dharmendra and his sons Sunny and Bobby Deol-starrer Yamla Pagla Deewana
is also releasing the same day, but the first time director has no
apprehensions.
Not at all! I love Dharampaji. In fact we are all going to watch `Yamla
Pagla Deewana` together with `Turning 30!!!`, Alankrita told IANS over the
phone from Mumbai.
It is a completely different kind of film and there is space for both the
movies. They are in completely different zones and genres, she added.
Set in Mumbai, the movie revolves around Naina (Gul) who, in the face of her
30th birthday, grapples with a heartbreak and a crisis in her advertising
career. A hilarious and heart-warming journey of a young woman who is blossoming
into a woman of substance, the movie then deals with the hurdles in her life and
how she overcomes them as a mature person.
Gul, who herself touched the 30-mark last year, says apart from the physical
changes that one experiences, a lot of self-assessment starts poking women in
the head at that age.
The skin starts showing its age, the glow might start fading, the
tightness and firmness on the skin starts to feel the change. Expectations begin
to hover in a self-assessment procedure and also by your near and dear
ones, she said.
But the people who are stable in their lives don`t really realise much of
these things. But the ones who haven`t been able to establish themselves go
through this phase more than the others, she added.
Having already generated some buzz courtesy its slick trailer and a different
subject, the movie is expected to receive niche footfalls.
Usually people in rural settings are settled in their lives with their
family and work and just have an aim to earn more and live a happy life. But in
urban settings, we are so disorganised. Women are not married, might be
unemployed, they have no permanent accommodation at times and, on top of it, the
physical changes start worrying you....so it is something to be anxious
about, said Alankrita.
