Review : Waqt

Based upon a Gujrati play, Waqt is a filmi family drama, with an emphasis on the father-son relationship. This in Bollywood-ese, unfortunately translates into a melodramatic film, devoid of commom sense and reasoning. The movie is chockfulof exaggerated filmi emotions, the story is shaky and not particularly believable, and situations oh-so-contrived. You could still enjoy this film of course; like me you could laugh at it.

Aditya Thakur (Akshay) is the spoilt son of Ishwarchand (Bachhan) and Sumi (Shah), a super-rich couple. Ishwar is devoted to his son, and tries to satisfy the brat’s every whim. While Sumi tries to stop Ishwar from doing so, believing that it is making Aditya weak, dependent and irresponsible, Ishwar takes no heed. Thus, while Ishwar the self-made man earns the money, Aditya is content to spend it like water. Aditya, then goes ahead and marries his girlfriend Pooja (Chopra), without his parents knowledge. When he returns home with her, like everything alse this too is forgiven, courtesy Ishwar.

Now, Ishwar is diagnosed with cancer, and has only a few months to live. He realises now, that he must teach his spoilt son to become independent and ready to fend for himself, since he (Ishwar) won’t be around much longer. So, keeping darling son ignorant of real matters, Ishwar and Sumi lay down stringent rules for Aditya and his now pregnant wife Pooja, thereby forcing them out of the house, sans money etc. Aditya soon realises that his parents are not joking and mean for him to fend for himself and wife.

Thus begins Ishwar’s race against time. Will his ploy work ? Will he be able to knock some sense into Aditya’s head, without jeopardising the love and affection in his family ? The rest of the film reveals all.

The characters in this movie are typically filmi, i.e.; they do stuff sans explanations, their emotions and actions have no greys – all is black or white. This makes for highly unrealistic cinema. The dialogues are in the same vein. Add to this some ludicrous scenes (I was laughing out loud at a “serious” scene), and overdone, milked-for-all-their-worth emotions (everyone weeps at the drop of a hat) and you have “Waqt”.

Direction is adequate. Both Bachhan and Shefali act well. However, Akshay is OK, and Priyanka remains the queen of incompetent actors. Comedy is provided by Rajpal Yadav, as the daft servant, and Boman Irani as Nattubhai, Pooja’s father. Music is OK, with a couple of catchy songs.

Unless a sucker for water-work inducing family drama, skip this one.