October (2018)

[**** stars / *****] 

There are love stories and then, there is October. 

October is easily the best romantic drama I will see in a very long time. 

On paper, the story may seem 'unfilmable', but director Shoojit Sircar and writer Juhi Chaturvedi create an artful, haunting symphony here. 

October story 
Among hotel management trainees interning at a Delhi hotel are Danish aka Dan (Varun Dhawan) and Shiuli (Banita Sandhu). 

Dan is an ever-complaining, irritated and short-tempered trainee. His friends, colleagues, and manager find it hard to put up with him. Dan ends up been assigned repeated errands related to cleaning rooms and laundry. 

Shiuli is, on the other hand, calm and professional. 

The last words? 
On New Year's Eve, the trainees have a party on the hotel terrace. 

Shiuli sits on the terrace parapet asking, "Where is Dan?" 

She then slips and falls down four storeys. Severely injured, Shiuli is moved to a hospital and goes into a coma. Shiuli's mother (Gitanjali Rao), uncle and siblings arrive.

The absent Dan comes to know of the accident and visits Shiuli. 

He is bewildered when he discovers that Shiuli's last words were about him. 

Dan starts visiting Shiuli daily, even as his internship suffers and his friends and roommates fail to understand his concern for a girl he barely knows.

October review 
October is based on a true story and interprets the tragedy with insight and poetry, mingling with nature's wonders. 

I was riveted. 

No sexual release, no dramatic moment, no sweet exchange of sugar candy dialogues. Just quiet, melancholic change as seasons pass and life glides by.

Never have hospital visits seemed so romantic. 

The cinematography (Avik Mukhopadhyay), the sense of location, the overcast atmosphere, add to the mood. 

Varun Dhawan is earnest and seeking depth. Banita Sandhu nails an unusual, difficult role with great stillness. Gitanjali Rao is well cast as the IIT professor and mother. 

The supporting cast is solid.    

A director in fine form 
Sircar explores every scene minutely. 

The 115-min running time, the deliberate use of minimal background music, absence of songs, add to the film's impact. Nothing is underlined or overstated.  

Is caring for a person you barely know, love? 

Is just giving love enough? How selfless can you be in love? What if you never knew whether the other person loved you? 

How many romantic films have made you ponder on such questions?   

October left me with the fragrance of the night jasmine long after the end credits rolled. 

Don't miss it.    

Pink (2016)

[***1/2 stars / *****] 

Three boys and three girls meet each other through a common friend at a rock show in Delhi. The girls are then persuaded by the guys to join them at a resort for dinner. 

Even these basic facts trickle into audience knowledge over a series of tense, gripping scenes. The film opens with one of the guys profusely bleeding with a deep cut in the skull, even as his panicky friends rush him to hospital. Meanwhile, the girls return to their rented apartment, stunned and disturbed. 

Deft Screenplay 

Pink kept me riveted thanks to a killer screenplay (Ritesh Shah) that tersely, harrowing reveals the details of 'the incident' in bits and pieces. 

A visual depiction of what actually happened unveils only at the end credits. By then, you are knocked out cold and numb, by the horror, starkness, and fierceness of it all.

Truth & Dare

The brutal truth of how women are perceived in Indian society at large, how stereotypes and the idea of male domination persist, down to a savage level, is expressed in balanced, original and searing storytelling. 

The emotionally draining experience of defending one's case in an Indian court is effectively depicted. Insensitivity and police indifference is craftily rendered into proceedings.  

Performances

Amitabh Bachchan's characterization as a retired lawyer begins in a mitigating, all-knowing Hindi film hero mold. This despite the bipolar disorder background and a bed-ridden wife. The court proceedings redeem Bachchan the actor to a great extent though.

Tapasee Pannu, Kirti Kulhari, and Andrea Tairang are the showstoppers here. Tapasee, her character the eye of the storm and story, deserves special mention. 

Piyush Mishra comes across as the stereotypical prosecution lawyer. Angad Bedi makes a believable, ominous antagonist. Dhritiman Chatterjee adds nuances to an otherwise mundane role of a judge, adding to his reputation as a legendary Bengali actor. 

Finally 

Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury's calculated, sensible direction and co-writers Ritesh Shah and Shoojit Sircar make Pink a triumph. A subject that could so easily be judgmental and dipped in rhetoric, escapes most overdone film-making pitfalls.  

Despite A Few Good Men (1992) inspired witness-provoking climax, leading to a propped-up and unconvincing happy ending, Pink is a story that is rarely told in a largely dream-selling Hindi film world and seldom, very seldom, told so well. 

Don't miss it on the big screen.