डियर जिंदगी: Rx, एक सुकून भरा ‘सेशन’! [3.5/5]

गौरी शिंदे की ‘डियर जिंदगी’ देखने के लिए आपको एक ख़ास तरह का चश्मा चाहिए होगा. वो चश्मा जिसके भीतर से आप देख पाएं कि कैसे एक सुपरस्टार अपने स्टारडम का बोझ धीरे-धीरे ही सही, अपने मज़बूत कन्धों से उतारने की कोशिश तो कर रहा है. हालाँकि कई बार आपको ये कोशिश जबरदस्ती की लगेगी, और कई बार बहुत बनावटी, फिर भी. तकरीबन तीन दशकों के अपने पूरे फ़िल्मी कैरियर में शाहरुख़ इस तरह की बेहद जरूरी कोशिश सिर्फ गिनती के कुछ वक़्त ही (स्वदेश और चक दे! इंडिया) करते नज़र आते हैं, इसीलिए इसके मायने और भी बढ़ जाते हैं. फिल्म में उनका किरदार एक जगह कहता भी है, “ज़िन्दगी में जब भी पैटर्न और आदतें बनती दिखाई दें, जीनियस वही है जिसे पता हो कि कब और कहाँ रुकना है?” इस फिल्म से शायद शाहरुख़ भी यही सीख रहे हैं.  

...और इसी करामाती चश्मे से शायद आप ये भी देख पाएं कि एक ‘मेनस्ट्रीम’ हिंदी फिल्म होते हुए भी, अपनी कहानी और कहानी कहने की शैली की वजह से कैसे ‘डियर जिंदगी’ कमोबेश एक प्रयोगधर्मी ‘इंडी’ फिल्म का चोला ओढ़ने में कहीं कोई शर्मिंदगी नहीं दिखाती. ज़िन्दगी की मुश्किलों को आसान बनाने के रास्ते सुझाती, ये फिल्म भले ही किसी बड़ी सर्जरी की तरह हिंदी सिनेमा की सारी तकलीफें एक झटके में दूर न कर पाती हो, पर एक सुकून भरा ‘सेशन’ तो है ही, जिसका असर आने वाले वक़्त में बिलकुल दिखाई देगा.

रिश्ते बनाने-निभाने में काईरा (आलिया भट्ट) थोड़ी कच्ची है. ‘बाय’ बोलने की जैसे उसको जल्दी रहती है. दूसरा कोई बोले, दर्द हो, दुःख पहुंचे, इससे पहले खुद ही बोल दो. जाने कैसे-कैसे डर पाले बैठी रहती है, बिलकुल हम सबकी तरह. रोने का मन हो तो हरी मिर्ची चबा कर कहती है, “मिर्ची की वजह से हो रहा है ये”. सिड (अंगद बेदी) के बाद रघुवेंद्र (कुनाल कपूर) भी उसकी जिंदगी से जाता दिख रहा है. डिप्रेशन का दौर है ये. गोलियां खाने के बाद भी काईरा को नींद नहीं आती. दिमाग के डॉक्टर, जहांगीर खान (शाहरुख खान) के सामने बैठी है, पर अपनी तकलीफ़, अपना डर सब कुछ अपना न कह कर, अपनी दोस्त के नाम पर धड़ल्ले से बताती जा रही है. आखिर, ऐसे डॉक्टर के पास जाने वाले को ‘लोग’ पागल जो समझते हैं.

खैर, डॉक्टर खान को मर्ज़ जानने में कोई मुश्किल नहीं होती. उन्हें बस उस ज्वालामुखी को कुरेदना है, जहां सब कुछ धधकते लावे की शक्ल में जमा होता जा रहा है. हालाँकि वो खुद डाइवोर्स जैसे अँधेरे रास्ते से गुजर चुके हैं, और कहते हुए झिझकते नहीं कि वो अपने बेटे को अच्छी यादें देना चाहते हैं, ताकि उसके पास अपने ‘थेरेपिस्ट’ को बताने के लिए कुछ तो हो. सच कहिये तो ऐसे ‘थेरेपिस्ट’ के पास जाने की जरूरत हम सबको है, जिनके फ़ोन कॉल्स अपने माँ-बाप के लिए कभी दो-चार मिनट से ज्यादा लम्बे नहीं होते.

‘डियर ज़िन्दगी’ अपने छोटे-छोटे, हलके-फुल्के पलों में बड़े-बड़े फलसफों वाली बातें कहने का जोखिम बखूबी और बेख़ौफ़ उठाती है. डॉक्टर खान जब भी रिश्तों को लेकर ज़िन्दगी का एक नया पहलू काईरा को समझा रहे होते हैं, उनकी इस भूमिका में शाहरुख़ जैसे बड़े कलाकार का होना अपनी अहमियत साफ़ जता जाता है. ये चेहरा जाना-पहचाना है. बीसियों साल से परदे पर प्यार, दोस्ती और ज़िन्दगी की बातें करता आ रहा है, पर इस बार उसकी बातों की दलील पहले से कहीं ज्यादा गहरी है, मजबूत है, कारगर है. आलिया जिस तरह भरभरा कर टूटती हैं परदे पर, हिंदी सिनेमा में अपने साथ के तमाम कलाकारों को धकियाते हुए एकदम आगे निकल जाती हैं. फिल्म की खासियतों में से एक ये भी है कि शाहरुख़ जैसा दमदार स्टार होते हुए भी कैमरा और कहानी दोनों आलिया के किरदार से कभी दूर हटते दिखाई नहीं देते.

गिनती के दो-चार बेहद आम दृश्यों को छोड़ दें, खासकर काईरा का ‘फॅमिली अफेयर’ जहां फिल्म की कहानी दूसरे हिस्सों के मुकाबले काफी बेअसर और लचर दिखाई पड़ती है, तो ‘डियर जिंदगी’ एक बहुत ही सुलझी हुई फिल्म है. जितना बोलती है, उतना ही कहती भी है, पूरी तरह नाप-तौल कर, पूरी तरह सोच-समझ कर! [3.5/5]         

FITOOR: Oh, you (Hopeless) beauty! [2.5/5]

Apart from the jingoistic emotions and vigorous political projection attached to it, India has advanced another reason to not lose its possession over Kashmir. Bollywood loves to shake down this heavenly geographical part & pride of India to its maximum, sometimes by planting a great Shakespearean saga of love, power and betrayal under the grime of its atrocious past [Read: Vishal Bhardwaj’s HAIDER] or sometimes just by using its picturesque postcard locations as a canvas to paint someone’s cinematic dream. Abhishek Kapoor’s FITOOR fits the bill for the latter. Along with his man behind the lenses Anay Goswami, Abhishek stuns you with magnetic visuals capturing icy lakes, snow-clad wooden foot-over bridges, crimson-red mansions and some equally wooden-evenly frosty faces in and around too, in identical respect.

Official adaptation of Charles Dickens’ GREAT EXPECTATIONS, FITOOR is a tale of two star-crossed childhood lovers. They look nothing more than puppets in evil hands of fate dancing on someone else’s tune. Impoverished Noor [Aditya Roy Kapoor] finds a manipulative curator in Begum Hazrat [Tabu] and a susceptibly shifting lover in her daughter Firdaus [Katrina Kaif]. Their ways go apart to meet again but destined to demand more from their lives. The obsession fueled by the love and longing is ready to self-destruct all the dreams and hopes one is always lived for.

FITOOR is very much like the actors playing parts in it. It looks as ravishing, radiant and exquisite as Katrina Kaif on any given day. You can look breathlessly at both until they try to communicate with you. Ms Kaif’s weird diction and pronunciation force you to look out for a ‘never there’ remote control that could either fast-forward the scene or just mute her to make you switch to the ‘beauty-admiration’ mode again. Film also starts behaving like Ms Kaif, at times. It speaks, and a lot but expressions do get lost while being translated on screen. Guess what? Ms Kaif goes to London in this film too. Why? To get her admired accent. How many more times Bollywood will bless her with that added explanatory mention for her accent??

It is also on the likes of Aditya Roy Kapoor. He makes his presence felt on screen but does it at such a lifeless pace and with such a static force that you can never call it ‘a moving experience’. A self-destructive youth caught in the ill-fated love; haven’t we seen him before in such pitiable state? But the one where the film never ceases to hold the power to impress and ignite emotions on many levels is the performance of Tabu. This role earlier had the never-aging, ever-young Rekha in it but Tabu owns it now. From the sharp and shrewd lonesome soul to the hysterically remorseful aging beauty, she looked never so exposed. In other, the casting does have some surprising names from Lara Dutta and Aditi Rao Hyderi to ghazal singer Talat Aziz, mostly in favor of the film.

FITOOR doesn’t often satisfy you as a great drama or a gorgeous love-story but with the controlled direction, some amazing musical renditions by Amit Trivedi and a totally outstanding cinematography, it remains one of those unfortunate cinematic efforts that doesn’t get a full support from its lead pair and dies in a tough fight to survive its killing pace. [2.5/5] 

DAAWAT-E-ISHQ: Not-so-regular! Not-so-surprising! Strictly Enjoyable! [2.5/5]

Boy follows the girl for a week or so. Girl waits for him to propose. And finally, it happens. A month later when both the actual parties in business [Marriage as they call it socially] meet in a restaurant to discuss further nitty gritties, the only reaction boy in love could come up with on his parent’s demand for dowry is, “My education in abroad needs only 60 lakhs. Why are you asking for 80 then?”…and you see a big banner being unveiled in the background that reads, “Sale 70% off”. That’s one aspect of this ethically corrupted-practically accepted malpractice we aren’t much vocal about recently. But there has to be the other side of the coin. This one too has its own.

The girl rejected countless proposals now has a wicked and impish plan to teach all the ‘dowry demanding sharks’. Weapon is the anti-dowry Law Section 498a of Indian Penal Code. Change your identity. Locate a well off dowry-starved party. Record all the proceedings of the verbal trade about the deal, get married and blackmail the parent for an out-of-court settlement with heavy money in exchange. Simple from the word go but then enters the spoiler. True love! What a filmy plot! Isn’t it? Do not dare you ask me what happens next.

Habib Faisal’s DAAWAT-E-ISHQ definitely has a delicious mix of new & age-old authentic flavors to lure his viewers but incidentally it is a half-cooked, strictly average dish you would not prefer to spend your special evenings with. Story by Faisal himself smells quite alike in nature at various fronts with similarly plotted LADIES Vs RICKY BAHL (Known for being Parineeti’s debut vehicle; Faisal was one of the co-writers), but the screenplay, dialogues and the characters more than performances are worth mentioning as they do a lot of damage control here.

Parineeti Chopra as the carefree & convinced Gulrez Qadir is energetic yet enigmatic as always. She shines like a fine cut diamond in most parts where playing the original character but the moment she slips into her another ‘fake’ character in the film, her charisma gets lessen and lighten by the overtly done character-sketch. Too shiny, too bright-eyed to be believable! Anupam Kher apparently is more into the character without being loud, his common setback with the most portrayals! Aditya Roy Kapoor looks every part of a Lucknow based restaurentier. His flirtatious presence on screen brings sheer energy in the plot. I wish he had given more room to show the emotional side of his character. TV heartthrob Karan Wahi makes his debut and does full justice to his extended special appearance.

DAAWAT-E-ISHQ scores big with the dialect and the dialogues! The vernacular touch of Hyderabadi Dakhini and the ‘shaayrana’ Lucknowi is very well achieved. When was the last time you met someone from Lucknow calling it ‘Nakhlau’? I know, it’s not in expected practice anymore but still. And then, the all known & loved authentic Mughlai dishes forcing and enticing you to rush towards the nearest and locally famous Biryani & Kebab vendors.

At the end, Habib faisal does dare to put some soul in the plot by raising a social issue we have been insensitive about for a long time now. Hope if he could have restricted himself from being tempted to filmy formulas of a happy-ending love-story. At best, it is one of those buffets that send you back home with an enjoyable break from regular dinner at home but will not keep you entirely-full or fully-pleased till you get anything better to overcome it. Strictly Enjoyable! [2.5/5] 

YEH JAWAANI HAI DEEWANI: A journey not so refreshing! [2/5]

It feels extremely annoying & unacceptable to see what all started with a huge potential & promise to bring freshness and a certain kind of novelty to the content part in Bollywood films [How can you forget the nice, sincere, feel good, simplistic yet multi-layered, emotional to its core impressive ‘WAKE UP SID’?], getting trampled, crushed & shattered from left, right & center with a much clichéd, unoriginal, full of gimmicks, star-driven [Yes, you’ll miss the actors here] preachy & perplexed average romantic comedy ‘YEH JAWAANI HAI DEEWANI’. I didn’t see it coming from you, Mr. Ayan Mukherji…not even in my weirdest dream.

So, haven’t we met before a bunch of buddies who have their own perception and expectations from life, they spend good times together, one girl trapped in her own world falls for the fun-loving carefree guy but the guy has plans for life other than just being in a relationship [Exploring the world around the globe in this case], they get separated by their priorities, time flies & we see them getting reunited this time in a more celebration mode the Indian way…& love strikes again. No prizes for guessing, it’s time to repair & rectify damages done in the past? Nothing could more regular than this.

Now, I do understand one having hell of limitations while making ‘just another’ love-story that doesn't give you much strength with its writing to built something real good, so we have an item number by an yesteryear sensation [The ravishing Madhuri Dixit in her usual best], dreamy jaw-dropping beautiful locations, high-on style sets and costumes, perfectly polished characters, songs & dance numbers on regular intervals, forced kissing scene [between the two ex-flames in real life]…and a few unexciting-poorly executed guest appearances to save the day and flaws in the substance!

Watch it if only the charming looks of Deepika Padukone & the cuteness of Ranbir Kapoor can make you look at the screen for hours with unblinking eyes [in other words if you are a hardcore fan], other wise I would choose Farookh Shaikh’s 2-scene appearance, the ‘Ghaghra via Agra’ song, confidently cool & fresh Kalki & a few ‘buddies at best’ scenes out of this whole 2 hour 41 min of tiresomely predictable movie experience. Don’t dare take this journey! It’s not adventurous, it’s suicidal! **[2/5]