OCTOBER -- a film review

OCTOBER  -- a film review



If you think that you can give “October”a miss -- even though it’s a Shoojit Sircar film -- primarily because it features Varun Dhawan, the  Bollywood chocolate hero for crazy teenagers, you will, perhaps, miss poetry on celluloid.


Produced by Ronnie Lahiri and Sheel Kumar under the banner of Rising Sun Films, with Shantanu Moitra on the soundtrack, written by Juhi Chaturvedi and conceptualized by Shoojit Sircar, the director himself, OCTOBER is a love story of a different kind that remains rooted in the heart making a connection deeper than the sea. It celebrates unconditional love, unspoken and unsung, that surfaces through an awakening with a jolt.


Shiuli (Banita Sandhu) and Dan (Varun Dhawan), interns at a five star hotel in Delhi, hardly notice each other during the course of their daily chores. Dan is forever irritable and gets into trouble with his seniors and peers while Shiuli is hardworking and careful. Named after ‘parijat’, the autumn flower that blooms for a day and withers by nightfall, Shiuli meets with an accident and Dan needs to know why she was looking for him while she fell from the third floor of the hotel.


The film highlights man in search of his soul to comprehend the true meaning of love by looking deep within; delving into a single emotion that we ignore as we get caught up in the rigmarole of a circus called 'life'.


Taking Varun Dhawan for the role of Dan is not for the box-office to keep ringing Shoojit Sircar reminds his viewers. He admits to finding some shades of ‘innocence’ still lingering in Varun's eyes after giving some mindless comedies. He represents a generation of some clumsy, bungling youth aspiring to be someone some day and hates going through insignificant tasks to get there. Like him we all need to slow down sometimes.


Definitely meant for  the 'serious' movie-lovers, the film is crafted with great sensitivity and intensity which the front-benchers looking for ‘masala’ will perhaps fail to appreciate. 
The pace is definitely slow and, I think, intentionally long-drawn at times and all we do is just wait for some revelation; for something to happen. The climax comes naturally and as, perhaps, expected. The revelation is not in terms of life or death but in terms of getting in touch with our inner selves if we have the time to give it a shot. Life doesn't change after any catastrophic event but what happens lies deep within and to be savoured privately. In the director’s own words, the film is an attempt to get in touch with our “calm side”. And that, if I may say so, is crucial.


Even though the mood of the story is remains  sombre throughout without  reprieve, as far as acting goes, each and every character seemed real. Geetanjali Rao as Shiuili’s mother is a portrait of grief without melodrama. The supporting cast was fully convincing , be it the boys and girls at work or the family members of Shiuli and Dan. Varun Dhawan has probably done the impossible by being Dan.

Photography in the hands of cinematographer, Avik Mukhopadhayay, is superb and mystifying.
Music by Shantanu Moitra is equally soul stirring.


I think, one has to experience this movie, if not for anything else,  to get in touch with our subconscious selves that lie buried in the  casket of our physical body. Sometimes one needs to understand the meaning of a connection that runs, perhaps, through eternity.

.
Dola Dutta Roy ©
Kolkata
April 19, 2018

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