Complicating a simple tale

Johnson Thomas

Tahira Kashyap Khurrana’s debut directorial feature is a multi-generational ensemble about the modern, middle-class female experience. It focuses on the lives of urban girls/women with Sharma as their common surname.

We get a fairly warm, tender dekko into their lives — their dreams, aspirations, coming-of-age, expectations and the struggles they face. Three stories try to mesh with each other through a common, all-too-flimsy thread.

Tahira trains her empathetic gaze on characters that may not come across as weighty, but they believe they have the weight of the world on their shoulders. A mix of ‘current’ and ‘topical’ issues gets underlined here.

Swati Sharma (Vanshika Taparia), on the cusp of puberty, feels it is high time she got her periods since the rest of the with-it girls among her peers have claimed to have gotten theirs. Her best friend Gurveen Sharma (Arista Mehta) has issues with her hair and she keeps changing styles at a whim. Swati’s parents Jyoti (Sakshi Tanwar) and Sudhir (Sharib Hashmi) lead a hectic life and have a loving relationship. Gurveen’s parents Kiran (Divya Dutta) and Vinod (Parvin Dabas), though, lead separate lives. Tanvi Sharma (Saiyami Kher), a cricketer, struggles with her relationship with her actor boyfriend Rohan (Ravjeet Singh), who keeps haranguing her about not being girly enough. They all seem to have trivial, easily resolvable issues, but…

This is a simple tale complicated by the manner in which it is presented. The narrative tries to make the commonplace look important. The characters are over-simplified, the writing isn’t sharp enough and the tone is a little too light-weight to be meaningful. The film isn’t without its comedic moments, but they don’t light up the experience.

All the actors give lived-in performances and that’s the mainstay of this film.

The dramatic moments offered by the screenplay do not add up. We see the ridiculous being played up, while the drama stays tepid. Dialogues are interesting, but not witty enough. Some of the tracks here are clichéd and have been done before.

Swati and Gurveen’s coming-of-age moments are, however, fresh enough but the treatment borders on the toon-ish. Tahira oversimplifies everything to the extent that the audience is left with little to ruminate about.

This film may not tug at your heartstrings, but it’s light enough to keep you interested. A decent enough first effort!

Join Whatsapp Channel of The Tribune for latest updates.