Dir: Shoojit Sircar
Written by: Juhi Chaturvedi
There’s dearth, in my opinion, of mundane characters taking the centerstage onscreen – simply because the people around – both the audience and the filmmakers – have remained unobservant, or probably reluctant to acknowledge the existence of people we have defined as mundane.
Dan (Varun Dhawan, cast against type – one might argue, fruitfully) is a hotel management trainee, a temperamental one at that, who would often state the obvious and express his opinion even when deemed unnecessary.
This is a character that is a part of our lives – a friend that tags along, present when needed but one that rarely falls on our mental radars up close. Then the credit goes to the writers for choosing a character among these; and it makes a lot of sense to place him in the hospitality business, where most people exist as services for the outsider, and understood only those involved.
In a rapid turn of events early in the film, Shiuli (Banita Sandhu), a co-worker friend, accidentally slips down a ledge while briefly asking about Dan in his absence at a party, and becomes comatose.
Dan, deeply effected by the events, takes it up on himself to be a companion to the comatose Shiuli, and thus tags along as an unofficial family member of the Iyer family.
As director-writer duo of Shoojit Sircar and Juhi Chaturvedi progresses from Vicky Donor to Piku to October, their charms grow subtle, and storytelling more poised and minimal – consider the scene where Shiuli’s mother, Prof. Vidya Iyer (played by the graceful, wide eyed Gitanjali Rao) ultimately relents to the notion of Dan moving on and pursuing his career. She advises him to leave, and we don’t get to see Dan’s reaction Dan to the statement – he himself has been rarely in control of events happening to him, though any reaction he has, would have invited a judgement from us. The filmmakers chose to avoid the reaction, leaving it as a natural and inevitable end of events of moving on, at some point of time.
Avik Mukhopadhyay’s cinematography lends itself to the palette of October – when Dan lifts Shiuli to place her on the bed, its lit as if holding her for a dance. And the film doesn’t need any songs for emotional consolidations – there aren’t singular plot developments that branch out the film. There in lies its appeal I think, in a time where grand things happen to ambitious people, here’s one content with looking for those discounted by life – mothers paying for fallen children, people returning to jobs and moving on.
Often throughout the film I was thinking now his friends would have had enough of Dan and something dramatic would happen, but the filmmakers knew better. It’s a pleasure to see the friends here (and the actors cast) – Dan is not among the brightest you know, and his friends don’t let that come into picture – there are no betrayals, or an intervention with life changing consequences – this is not that film, and it is all the more better for it.
hungryrj 