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Widowed Uttam Chaudhary lives a comfortable lifestyle with his college-going son, Karan, a daughter, Trisha, who is in love with a South-Indian youth named Ashish Reddy, and an elder son who is married and works in the United States, through whose income the Chaudharys live on. Uttam is a Lecturer, but when he starts getting old, becoming forgetful, he is asked to retire. He is very close to Trisha, who looks after him. The first major episode Trisha's experiences in her father when he announces that he is getting ready to go to work and asks for his wife to bring him breakfast. Thereafter, things get worse, especially when Ashish's parents come to meet the Chaudharys. It is here that Uttam babbles on inexplicably about being responsible for killing Mohandas K. Gandhi. Trisha must now find out if her dad was in any way responsible for Gandhi's death, and what exactly triggered his long-suppressed memory in her dad's mind, and at the same time must come to terms that his disability may... Written by
rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)
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What happened to our mainstream Hindi cinema at last? One after other it is coming out with excellent and diverse themes never dealt before. Wow ! When FTII-alumni, internationally renowned Assamese film maker Jahnu Barua and Anupam P. Kher as producer-lead actor comes together, you expect a result to be of very high value. Yes, it is, as what starts off as a touching tale about a Retd. College lecturer (Anupam Kher) who falls prey to Alzheimer disease and how the lives of everybody around him get affected ends on a very topical note of ignorance of values in today's world, very subtly. This is the second feature film in Hindi of Jahnu Barua who directed another one called Apekshaa (1984) though almost all his films are in Assamese and also based in soil there. There are some amazing performances viz. Anupam Kher and also Urmila Matondkar who is quite restrained here. More than anything this film succeeds in making any layman realize and empathize to deal with somebody close whom this disease affects. This film qualifies for select audience, as it is devoid of any of those rubbish commercial elements of forced romance and songs, hero-heroine track or inconsequential sub-plots but come across as very honest film with more substance than style. Bappi Lahiri surprised with his background score. The film has no political overtones as the title suggests but a human story. The problem? Well the story is too simplistically told so much so that to pack it in duration of 1.45 hr, the pace slows down, as the events are not too many. Also, it would be better if it covered more of the disease part and treatment part but of course that was not the focus of the film. The drama in the staged part of the courtroom also lacks that required punch. Nonetheless it put across the message very clearly and aptly and thus succeeds without taking a road to melodramatic Indian ethos or art house cinema. Also, distributor Yashraj Films deserves a pat on their shoulders for bringing a quality product, which is so contemporary, and a must especially for youth audience. A sooner Tax-free status is demanded.