Review : Hulla

Rating : Above average (3.8/5)
Genre : Drama /Comedy
Year : 2008
Running time : 1 hours 50 minutes
Director : Jaideep Verma
Cast : Sushant Singh, Rajat Kapoor, Vrajesh Hirjee, Kartikadevi Rane, Mandeep Mazumdaar, Chandrachood Karnik,
Kid rating : PG

HULLA : SIMPLE PLOT AND SUBTLE HUMOR = GOOD FILM

Although Hindi cinema has come a long way from the usual boy-meets-girl routine, there are still few films made on small subjects. Hulla is one such film, quite a pioneer really, and it’s subject ? Noise. The noise at night. To put it precisely, the noise of the night watchman whistling. The entire film revolves around this noise, this “hulla” which keeps our hero awake and un-rested at night, and the effect this has on his life.

Sushant Singh plays Raj Puri, your average yuppie, married to pretty lady Abha (Kartika), both working and recently having bought a new flat in a housing society. Raj is a stock-broker, and busy and stressed out during the day. However when he returns tired to his apartment in the evening he finds no rest, because of the watchman’s whistles. This whistling apparently doesn’t bother anyone else in the building. Initially Raj tries peaceful methods like bribing the watchman (Chandrachur Karnik) to get him to not whistle as often, or to whistle far away his flat. However the watchman is answerable to the building society’s secretary Janardhan (Rajat Kapoor), who along with other occupants of the building thinks that Raj is making a mountain out of a molehill.

Raj finally gets desperate for some peace, and gets aggressive, calling in the police, much to his wife’s embarrassment. He gets irritable, paranoid and does badly at work. His comfortably happy life is now going to pieces . . .

I like the film conceptually – the idea is quite novel for a Hindi film, especially when desi audiences seem to only want films with pelvis-crunching item numbers. Anything remotely requiring brain-power and people can’t get their “entertainment”. This film comes in the “Bheja Fry” genre, if you can call “Bheja Fry” a genre – the kind of film which is based upon human quirks and fetishes and the effects those quirks and fetishes have on the rest of us mere mortals.

Jaideep Verma directs this film with a reasonably firm hand. In a film which is based on a very small happening, getting the details right is of the essence. Verma works hard to give us the 360 degree view – we get little insights into the character’s lives. We see Raj and Abha and their problems, Raj’s prejudiced in-laws and his demanding boss. And we also see Janardhan and his carping wife in their one-room apartment, and his ailing business. We are also introduced to the pitiful figure of the watchman, a stooped old man, with bad knees and failing eyesight, kow-towing to Janardhan for fear of losing his one source of income. Everyone, it seems, has their own compulsions, and you can’t help sympathizing with them.

The cast of characters in this film is impressive. Sushant Singh is an actor who’s shown his mettle before (Sehar), and while in this film he departs from his usual “villain” roles to play a tragic-comic character, he does quite well, save for a few over-done scenes. Rajat Kapoor is another very fine actor, and he too plays something other than his usual, suave self – Janardhan, a middle-class, un-gentrified, grey-haired babu. Kartika Rane as Abha is quite effective, as is Vrajesh Hirjee playing Raj’s colleague and confidant at work. And the actress who played Janardhan’s wife (I think it was Mazumdar) was magnificent.

The film is not without it’s problems however – it drags and gets repetitive. I wish that it had more scenes to give Raj’s character depth, and moved at a faster pace. But that said, it’s still a nicely nuanced piece of work, a decent film with a simple plot and subtle humor. Well worth a watch.

For the parents, this is an almost kid-safe film, except for one intimate, love-making scene, which earns it a PG rating.