October Review & BO Updates Thread - Page 10

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October Review: Shoojit Sircar unleashes brilliance. Varun Dhawan at his best.

The Unlikely Casting Of The Super-Star Varun Dhawan In October Is Very Much Part Of The Sweet Detailing. There's Something About The Age Of Adult Innocence--21, In The Lead Character's Case--That You Wholly Appreciate

Varun Dhawan and Banita Sandhu in a still from October

October
Director: Shoojit Sircar
Actors: Varun Dhawan, Banita Sandhu
Rating:

Okay a quick warning for those who often complain about films being 'too slow' (and these aren't necessarily excited consumers of Varun Dhawan's Judwaa 2 alone): You must slow down on your way to the theatre, right away. Not saying there is danger ahead. But you're looking at a film that isn't simply programmed around a plot, as it progresses from point A to B or Z.

Tempo isn't of primary importance here. This isn't a suspense thriller, murder mystery, or even a regular love story, if you may. You're instead being invited to gently feel somethingan emotion perhaps, but mostly a strange kind of empathy.

In line with that quiet melancholy, I guess this film is titled Octoberreferring perhaps to the temperate season, autumn, when leaves fall, the world begins to look bereft, and bright days become shorter as glum evenings take over.

The central event in October, however, takes place end-December, when the lead character (Banita Sandhu) falls off a building while hanging out with her friends/colleagues at a New Year's Eve party. The casualness with which she accidentally slips off the ledge of a terraceby far the movie's most dramatic momenttells you more about the life-like tone of this film than any scene would.

Watch the trailer of October here:

The girl works as a management trainee in a Delhi hotel, along with several others, including an equally young boy (Varun Dhawan) she knows as any other work-mate. The fact of this girl getting into a coma, though, affects that boy more than others.

In terms of scenery, what you have therefore is a motion pic set, chiefly between a hotel, and a hospitaltwo transient spaces that nobody ever checks-in to, knowing anything more the certainty of checking out soon. The camera compels you to follows its every move, zig-zagging through these sanitised, indoor environments. The level of detailingfrom the hotel lobby/laundry to the hospital ICU, or even down to the classroom at IIT Delhi, where the girl's mom teachesholds your attention first.

Even the unlikely casting of the super-star Dhawan is very much part of the sweet detailing. There's something about the age of adult innocence21, in the lead character's casethat you wholly appreciate, or even long for, only when you're not 21 anymore; and of course, you'll never be. That endearing purity very much naturally shows on Dhawan's face. How else would you be able to explain, on screen, this strange, visceral sort of care/attraction for an unconscious girlespecially with zero back-story on the boy himself?

I mean, we've seen films that delve into caring for a severely ailing loved onethe fab Pedro Almodovar's Talk To Her (2002), or Richard Eyre's Iris (2001), or even Nick Cassavetes's The Notebook (2004), for that matter. But October essentially delves into the idea of unconditional love, and whether it can ever exist, and to such degree. The film evidently argues it can, even if it seems slightly inexplicable.

I certainly believe it must, although have met, and have even been close to some, who're sure that a relationship between a parent and childlet alone siblings, or loversisn't wholly conditional either. Maybe they're right (about themselves). Who knows? What you do know is this story, in a really odd way, will still make sense to a sensitive few. And that's not only for what you see, but what you don't.

For instance, the first thing you expect in a Bollywood picture of this genre is a haunting, lilting tune (the chocolatey 'melody', as it were) informing most sentimental scenes, that thereafter becomes the title track. If it was the '80s that song may even have a "happy version". Staying miles away from the obvious tricks/topes, including melodrama, what director Shoojit Sircar, and his writer Juhi Chaturvedi, pull off is effectively stretch a one-line thought/plot into a feature of two hours, that instantly moves you for its striking sincerity, honesty.

Which is also what explains master-director Sircar's incredibly eclectic career thus far, where he's brilliantly bounced between genres, without calling much attention to himselfright from his debut, Yahaan (2005; romance in the times of Kashmir insurgency), Vicky Donor (2012; comedy), Madras Cafe (2013; thriller on the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi), Piku (2015; a lovely ode to father-daughter love).

This subtle, lyrical drama had me slightly teary-eyed on occasionit could be because of an emotional trigger, or perhaps a memory it subconsciously draws one towards. This happens to me a lot at the movies by the way. Just so you know, and can probably treat that as a word of caution as well!

October is sheer poetry. Yes, the common view on the film might go against it but that's the beauty of poems. Those who feel the ache, can't get the words out of their heads. After a string of crowd pleasers, one can imagine why Varun Dhawan would have signed up for this film. For the sake of variety, sure but there's something so pure about October.

There are characters who develop such overpowering love for each other but there's never a situation where they get to profess it to each other. That's probably what October is about - a story about the unconditional quality of love, the kind that pops up when you least expect it, incomprehensible enough that no one understands what's driving you as far and stays with you even when you can't put it in as many words. It's surprising how Shoojit Sircar and his hit writer Juhu Chaturvedi came up with such an unusual love story, just when we thought how to make a love story that doesn't stench of formulaic thinking. Deftly directed and carefully conceived, here it is - love tucked away in a nook of the frame, an underlying theme as a hapless story of a young girl unfolds.

So we meet Danish Walia (Dan) who is frankly an irritable idiot with no sense of purpose. He is tuned to hate everything around him, careless and uncaring with a giant size ego that keeps his overconfidence pumped up. So, it's no surprise that he hardly notices Shiuli (Banita Sandhu) the largely meek overachiever who is his colleague. A regular part of his routine life, Dan never quite took notice of her till an accident has her bedridden. When he finds out that her last words were - Where is Dan, he is drawn towards her. Her comatose state has his empathy, her troubled family find a pillar of support in him and mostly in Dan, she finds hope, probably, that allows her to live. But there aren't many words that describe what Dan and Shiuli feel so if you are a romantic, there's enough fodder for you to relish. There is a scene where the doctor asks Shiuli to respond to the question whether she knows Dan, and she stays blank. The innocence with which Varun plays it out is heartbreaking. But that's the soul of this film, its astute characterisation. Varun is top notch in the movie. Yes, it's nothing like what he has ever played and yet it's a performance so straight from the heart that he bowls you over with it. He is nuanced and consistent, pretty much how Sircar would have wanted him to be. Judwaa 2 boy makes sure that he is his director's man in this one. Banita Sandhu has little to do and yet is the film's anchor. You wish you could find out what could have happened between her and Dan, but alas life was too brutal to her.