A coming-of-age story, "Udaan" is an impressive debut feature by Vikramaditya Motwane that covers familiar first-film ground with emotional conviction and freshness. A kind of Indian cousin to Truffaut's "400 Blows," "Udaan" follows the fortunes of Rohan (the sweet-faced Rajat Barmecha), an aspiring writer whose horizons shrink when he's kicked out of prep school. He is sent home to Jamshedpur, an industrial town in northeast India, to live with a father he hasn't seen in years and a 6-year-old half brother, Arjun, he didn't know he had.
Rohan immediately squares off with his father (Ronit Roy), a petty tyrant who demands to be called Sir (as in, "Sir is waiting") and thinks nothing of stomping on Rohan's dreams or using him as a punching bag.
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The father-son plot — the story's motor — is stickier, occasionally relying on contrivance to move ahead. Part of the problem is that the father is too much a fairy-tale ogre. Mr. Roy gives him a military bearing and an unbending self-righteousness (even as he drinks himself silly). But while the movie wants to suggest he's something more than a monster, it can't say what that might be. (Why, for example, does sentimental music run under a scene in which the father, drunk, threatens Rohan and calls him a girl?)
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New York Times
Udaan is Sheer Joy to Watch
Rohan (Rajat Barmecha) is a special 17-year old. Though kicked out from a prestigious boarding school in Shimla, there's something instantly arresting about his serene disposition and soulful, searching eyes. He's not a man yet but his poems are observant, mature and laced with enticing simplicity. There's enough subtext to figure out that this wisdom steps from the fact that he lost his mother at a young age and his hardboiled father is too aloof to take notice.
Whether it's his escape or his identity, writing brings out the best in Rohan's otherwise clammed-up world. A detail often elucidated through fascinating, freewheeling verse. And so that's precisely what he wants to pursue: a career in writing. This does not go down well with his stern, old-school father (played to perfection by Ronit Roy) who wants him to do what 63 percent Indian parents aspire -- join an engineering college.
After his afore-mentioned expulsion from boarding, Rohan comes to live with his obstinate father in the steel town of Jamshedpur only to find himself clubbed with a surprise roommate -- his six-year-old step brother, Arjun (Aayan Boradia)....A far cry from his rule-breaking days in hostel, he's rudely informed to address his rather mean, hypocritical dad -- he smokes and drinks in front of his kids and then insists on early-morning fitness regime -- as 'Sir'. It's an evidently strained father-son scenario as Rohan angrily points out, 'Beta hoon. Bank ka fixed deposit nahi.'
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Rediff