Movie Review : Wake up Sid !

Rating : Above average (3.75/5)
Genre : Romance/Drama
Year : 2009
Running time : 2 hours 30 minutes
Director : Ayan Mukerji
Cast : Anupam Kher, Supriya Pathak, Ranbir Kapoor, Konkona Sen Sharma, Rahul Khanna, Shikha Talsania, Namit Das, Kashmira Shah
Kid rating : PG




WAKE-UP SID : DREAMY DEBUT

Richie-rich Sid, as you know, is your perennially lovable loser. Aisha Bannerji is a motivated wanna-be writer who desires her independence, and she tells Sid, when he asks, a MAN not a BOY (such as he) for a soul-mate. So never the twain shall meet, you think ?

Director Ayan Mukherji’s debut vehicle “Wake up Sid” is actually a film about Siddharth waking up, metaphorically that is, to his life, and his place in it. Aisha, the new girl in town, befriended by Sid, is instrumental in making that happen, but her disdain for his childishness – she calls him a “bachha”, ensures that younger Sid and older Aisha remain “just friends”. So when slacker Sid fails his graduate (or under-grad for the US) exams, misbehaves with his mother (Supriya Pathak Shah), and is booted out by his father (Anupam Kher) he lands up where else, but at his friend Aisha’s doorstep.

Aisha is inching along with her own goals in life – she has a job, but she wants “the” job – as a writer. Romance is in the air once we spy the very artsy looking Rahul Khanna as her boss. Sid must learn to live sans his Dad’s wealth and the various associated comforts, but there is hope in terms of possible work and love might be right around the corner once he meets an old (and very pretty) acquaintance. Life happens, but will it, for Sid and Aisha ?

“Wake up Sid” is sensitively crafted, and humorously told. Much of the humor stems from the interaction between Sid and his friends, and his very guileless remarks like the one where he tells Aisha, whom he’s only just met, that she probably is not the college crowd type, since she looks older. The college camaraderie is reminiscent of parts of “Dil Chahta Hai” which also was a story of very rich kids. And cynically speaking, maybe the atmosphere feels right, and the humor funny, when the vodka is flowing and the wealth inherited ?

Not to say that Mukherjee doesn’t put his best foot forward – he does. He takes this basic coming-of-age story and infuses it with humor, charm, and some very moving familial touches. The film’s screenplay which was good on the whole, was at times so graceful that emotions jumped at you from the screen, and at times, fumbled for logical reasons. It’s not that the film portrayed fantasy, but it did portray a very pretty reality – newbie Aisha not only gets the job, but she obtains a flat in Bombay (which sounds prohibitively expensive on no salary) before she lands the job !

Konkona Sen Sharma might not be the prettiest actress we have, but she wins hands down when it comes to emoting. Her character Aisha Banerjee, was realistically written and portrayed. Ranbir too gave a pretty good performance as Siddharth, although his acting skills could be honed; the cracks showed in the scene where he goes to talk to his Dad about the cheque. His character, that of clear-hearted, fun-loving, guileless Sid was well sketched. Also very believable and adding to the general merriment were Sid’s loyal friends Laxmi (Shikha Talsania) and Rishi (Namit Das).

As far as characters go, Supriya Pathak’s was the one fragile spot. An actress of Pathak’s caliber is stuck in a weak, wishy-washy role as Sid’s mother, where she clings on pathetically to her son’s affections via broken English. She seemed more weak-willed than the average mother, and quite unalike mine, who would have soundly told off (and thrashed) a son like Sid. Anupam Kher depicting Sid’s father Ram Mehra, is outstanding, and I didn’t need to say that, did I ?

Another feather in the cap for the film-makers is the music. The title song, and “Kya karoon” are both youthful and energetic. I also like the very melodious “Aaj kal zindagi” – very vintage Shakar-Ehsaan-Loy and reminded me strongly of “Kaisi hai yeh rut” from “Dil Chahta Hai”. Also very nicely done was the Uday Benegal (remember Indus Creed  ?) sung number “Life is crazy”. I wasn’t floored by “Iktara” but what really drove me nuts was how, whenever a romantic scene came on, the music immediately changed to this English ballad style shit – what ? Hindi not expressive enough for romance ?

So now we come to the part where I tell you that this life drama-cum-romance gave me my money’s worth. Well, yeah – upto a point. I loved the lazy banter, the unselfconscious horsing around, the great leap that Hindi cinema has supposedly taken in actually showing a platonic relationship between a good looking young man and woman, and not having them jump in bed together, even though they sleep only a few feet from each other – yup, wrap your mind around that one ! Bollywood might actually be coming of age !

What didn’t work for me was that I just didn’t fancy the way it ended, happily which was good, but not very believably. Chalk and cheese, the two of them, you know ? Therefore no warm-and-mushy feelings mellowed my drive home, and the bells of true romance on-screen didn’t jangle at all (as they did post Love aaj kal, or post Cheeni kum) – which is kind of a bummer, because that was the point, wasn’t it ?

Still, a very worth-it film from Ayan Mukerji, this one is pretty clean and classy, but gets a PG (and not G) rating for some girly, “how’s your sex-life” kind of talk

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