A (mostly) pleasant whiff of both nostalgia, esp. when it comes to how the movie deals with the coming-of-age portion of the plot, as well as the refreshingly mature (and this is subjective for sure, but definitely tasteful) treatment of sex-outta-wedlock has been treated, especially when the same has to be gleaned within an (extreme / extremist?) conservative milieu like ours, which has always been defensive at best, but typically almost always in denial, about such 'trysts', and hopefully will subtly alter its attitude gradually at least, given there are film-makers out there like Kulkarni and his ilk, with refreshingly progressive attitudes that shine a light on the same with works-of-art such as these.
Before I delve further into the so-called 'heavier' aspects of the not-really-straightforward plot, I do feel the need to digress (a bit).
One of the things that struck me was how this one, along with Udaan, Lootera, Aankhon dekhi and Dumb lagake haisha, seemingly re-created period milieus, without drawing our attention to the effort that must have taken. The cinematography and the simple prod and art design kinda make it seem effortless in all the flicks, without calling attention to themselves except in retrospect, like I'm doing so now.
Loved the background score, and enjoyed 1 song that played in the background (as well as end-credits). While the BG sounded very inventive, the best part for me was that it did not sound as clichéd as most other (mainstream?) works in Hindi cinema sound. While not as inventive as Aankhon dekhi was, this is a very strong second, and I do wish they put the BG score out there for purchase.
I will be watching out for other movies from Harshavardhan Kulkarni, and am a firm fan of his technique (with a few exceptions, that I will skim by in a bit).
Now, for that 'heavier' stuff I referenced at the beginning: If my initial description makes you think this is heavy going, you'd only be partially right, since the movie does take a detour towards heavy- duty drama with a couple of events addressed during the runtime of this flick, but then takes a hard left back again to where we were at from each of those detours. I confess I did not expect this movie to make those substantial detours, and while I did try and predict what might become of those segues, nothing I imagined came to fruition, which was both a blessing (since I was surprised) and a disappointment (the movie might have benefited substantially if 1/more of those threads were closed fittingly). Anyways....
I've only watched Gulshan Devaiah's performance in one other flick - Shaitan. It was loud and obnoxious, as befitting the character he played, which was showy at best, but a perfect showcase for a new actor, and his effort did show. However, from a performance perspective, I went in looking forward more to watching Radhika Apte (Shor in the city, and the recent Badlapur) perform, especially since her portions in the trailers for this one promised a lot. What did I get on that front? An amazingly grounded, mature performance from Devaiah, in spite of the challenges he faced, especially since his character is not one to empathize with, at least not in public (snigger!). Grounded, mature, and very, very good. Zero over-acting, or playing to the gallery (I was worried about that for sure, considering 'Shaitan'). Apte, ended up having more screen-time than I credited her character with in this flick, and that made for a pleasant surprise, in spite of certain clichéd decisions made about her character (true-to-life, one might argue, and I might lose that argument, to be fair). One of the best revelations though, was the Maharashtrian/Marathi-movie (Duniyadari) actress, Sai Tamhankar, who had an unenviable job, playing a character who could turn out to be even less easy to empathize/sympathize with, with a dignity that few actresses might be able to muster. I'm sure I'll be in a minority on this one, but she brought a class and a dignity to her role, that's worth being the sole reason to re-visit this flick.
Kulkarni, though deft in most sequences, sometimes seemed to falter in 2 areas. 1, in keeping the timelines straight. While he did prove adept when it came to keeping then period aspects straight, most of the audience-members, me excluded, were continuously complaining about the frequent time-jumps, especially when those jumps pertained to recent events in the movie's timeline/s. While I, perhaps in a minority, enjoyed that as I am wont to, it also comes with having viewed many other movies that played with timelines similarly. Here, it did act in alienating a significant portion of the audience. However, if it brings them back to re-visit the flick, that might just be Kulkarni's win. Jury's out, however, and time will tell. 2, in his handling of faux-flashbacks. I did feel that the device was over-used, akin to the sim(ulation) sequences in the Divergent series (more on that elsewhere).
All in all, a movie that deserves an audience, and hopefully one of the better examples of progressive-minded cinema in a milieu that might learn to appreciate it, given time and lesser interference from the moral police (who, unfortunately albeit typically, have their grubby hands all over the flick, that can be glaringly and painfully obvious to those who're watching closely, and who can read the list of stuff excised from the final product). Sigh.
