Member Reviews

A recap of Season 1: Purva (Anchal Singh), daughter of ruthless neta Akheraj Awasthi (Saurav Shukla), a don-like figure with the authorities at his beck and call and an army of goons, has always obsessed over and been a thorn in the flesh of good boy Vikrant Singh Chauhan (Tahir Raj Bhasin). To add to his misery, Vikrant’s father (Brijendra Kala) has always been a servile, loyal employee of the Awasthis, afraid to go against Akheraj even if it means pushing his son towards Purva. Vikrant had instinctively and steadfastly spurned Purna’s friendship even in school and could heave a sigh of relief only when she was packed off to the UK. He had a dream future planned with Shikha (Shweta Tripathi), the love of his life, when Purva returned as an adult, obsession intact and ready to claim him as hers once again. With Akheraj willing to go to any lengths to get her what she desires, getting rid of Purva was Vikrant’s only way out of a marriage he dreaded. It was, unwittingly, Vikrant’s first step towards turning himself into an unrecognisably dark person, no different from the Awasthis.

When an Abhishek Bachchan starrer comes along, you’re assured that there will be something different and something endearing on offer. Whether it works or not. With a repertoire that includes Vicky Donor and Piku, director Shoojit Sircar also stands for cinema with a difference. Again, whether it works or not. The qualities associated with Bachchan and Sircar combine to tell the real-life tale of an unknown Arjun Sen, inspirational in its own way. Arjun’s days are numbered, say the docs. His surgeries can no longer be counted on his fingers. He’s lost his roof to wife in a divorce settlement, his job to laryngeal cancer. His legendary arrogance has been whittled down, he’s become a statistic. One of those that sum up your chances of survival as bleak. He almost drives his Cadillac off the cliff, one evening.

One day, a foul-mouthed man on the cusp of 70 realises that he doesn’t have any achievement in his lifelog that will keep him alive for posterity. A national-level swimmer who didn’t strive enough to change the colour of his bronze medal, Vijay Mathew (Anupam Kher) is an ordinary old man seeking a sliver of gold dust. Having lost his supportive wife to cancer, he is withering from the inside and appears grumpy from the outside. Still, he hasn’t given up on the magic of life and doesn’t want those around him to undermine his leap of faith when an opportunity presents itself. Vijay decides to participate in a tough triathlon contest to make it to record books and give something back to his friends who stood by him.

Someone who loves exploring the intricate relationship between bodily functions and life’s larger purpose, after Piku and October, director Shoojit Sircar turns to a real-life cancer survivor to tell a middling tale of resilience and reform. A hot-shot marketing man, Arjun Sen’s (Abhishek Bachchan) career comes to a sudden halt when he is diagnosed with multiple malignancies. After initial bouts of denial, he doesn’t surrender to fate, refuses to become a statistic, and enlists himself in a long-drawn battle with the disease. Soon, we discover his relationships are not in the best of health either. At work, he is a cut-throat. At home, he is divorced and has a daughter (Pearle Dey/Ahilya Bamroo) to raise who suspects him of indulging in some sort of drama to evoke empathy. In the hospital, he comes up with diagrams and googled information lest his doctor (Jayant Kriplani) take him for a ride.

For a man who has delivered the simplest of the stories in the most heartwarming films, Shoojit Sircar falters a bit with his latest I Want To Talk. The film, based on a real person, talks of a man’s relentless pursuit to live despite the medical challenges that life keeps throwing at him. The film highlights the journey of Arjun Sen (Abhishek Bachchan) through years of medical misfortunes and surgeries and his constant ability to fight back. It also highlights his evolving relationship with his daughter over a few years. I Want To Talk deals with loneliness, illness and impending death - themes that Sircar has deftly handled before in films like October and Piku. But unlike the previous films, Sircar’s latest doesn’t leave a defining impact - despite Abhishek Bachchan delivering one of his finest performances in recent years.

Payal Kapadia’s enchanting ode to sisterhood and the glaring contrasts of Mumbai has a tranquil charm to it. There’s a certain tenderness and ease to the flow in storytelling that makes you see the city in a new light, even if you have been a Mumbaikar all your life. Watching Kapadia’s three protagonists setting themselves free from societal and psychological shackles to embrace their desires, gives you that warm fuzzy feeling.

A woman leans on a pole in her compartment, for support, for balance, swaying with the rhythm of the train. She looks exhausted, after a long day at work. We take in, like she does, the way the city looks at night, bars of refracted light and darkness dancing across her face. This image, which comes early in Payal Kapadia’s lyrical ode to working-class Mumbai and female friendship, becomes a marker of the themes the film explores, and it stays with you.

All We Imagine As Light opens like a non-fiction film about a city of grand fictions. We see a dark Mumbai — the factory of dreams — in which its survivors and victims imagine light. Invisible migrant voices play over a montage of traffic, streets, beaches, stations and hope. A pregnant housemaid jokes about being fed well by her employer. A veteran from Gujarat refuses to call it home because he’s afraid he might have to leave any moment. A dockyard worker recalls the fishy smells from his first night; he speaks like the stink has gone, but it’s his nose that adapted. A woman credits the place for making her forget a breakup. They all sound like stories from the “Spirit of Mumbai” handbook — it’s hard to tell their fate from their faith. The film seamlessly transitions from the generic to the specific by the end of this montage. The camera settles on one such story in motion: two Malayali nurses on the train back to their tiny apartment.