Movie Preview : Wake up Sid !

Update : Here’s the review.

“Wake up Sid” is produced by Karan Johar and Ronnie Screwvala, and written and directed by Ayan Mukerji (Rani Mukherjee’s cousin). From the promos WUS appears to be a “coming of age” film, much like “Lakshya”. Here you have charmer Ranbir Kapoor – and he seems quite perfect for the role, because he “looks” (and this might be just my point of view) like a rich, young wastrel, which he is in the film. Great casting, yes 🙂 ?

Anyway Kapoor is Siddharth Mehra aka Sid, going along his merry, wealth-paved way with a nary a care in the world. He doesn’t worry about the future as long as he’s having fun today. What he needs he’s got – the love of his parents (Anupam Kher and the fabulous Supriya Pathak, who I wish did more films) and their money – hence a comfy, cushy life, which he takes for granted. He’s also got 2 dependable friends Rishi (Namit Das) and Laxmi (Shikha Talsania). Soon enough he makes one more – Aisha Banerjee (Konkona Sen Sharma) a talented writer from Calcutta, looking to find her space in Mumbai.

With her advent into his life, things begin to change for Sid, and at the end of a momentous summer, he must decide what he wants from life.

Now, the promos project the film to be a love-story between immature, young slacker Sid (played by 27 year old Ranbir Kapoor) and relatively saner (and smarter ?) Aisha (played by 30 year old Sen-Sharma). Konkona, a very able actress, appears to play the part of the more “grounded” character, much like the one she played in “Luck by chance”, while Ranbir gets to fool around a bit more as happy-go-lucky, but oh-so-sweet and nice Sid Mehta. Kapoor looks to be a star in the making, having inherited his father’s (Rishi Kapoor) buoyant charm, and his mother’s (Neetu Singh) sparkly verve. And there’s no one like him to carry off the part of an empty-headed young wastrel, AND make you like him !

Although I’ve always felt that Karan Johar’s films are generally eye-candy and not much more, this one with a different director at the helm might turn out to have more meat. The promos hold out the promise of a more sensitive handling than Johar films generally get, but of course only upon viewing the real thing can one actually tell. The music, composed by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy has so far (and I’ve listened a few times) appeared “different” and not necessarily catchy – maybe it needs time to grow on one ? “Kya karoon” seems to be the best of the lot.

The official website is here. “Wake Up Sid” releases Oct 2nd. I’m looking forward to this one !