Wake Up Sid - Movie Review

IS THIS THE ALARM FOR BOLLYWOOD

WAKE UP SID

* Ranbir Kapoor, Konkana Sen, Supriya Pathak & Anupan Kher

Wake Up Sid is a coming of age movie but even more so for Bollywood.

It is deliberate, unhurried and almost languid in its pacing and for most of the movie there isn’t anything ‘happening’ as such. There is no real story to speak of and infact the whole movie could be shown in a 10 minute clip.

But don’t let the above para put you off the movie… It is not meant to be a critique. The movie is made so well and so assuredly by debutant Ayan Mukherjee (a first cousin of both Rani & Kajol) that its almost like going back to college again.

Siddharth Mehra (Ranbir Kapoor) is a spoilt and only child of Anupam Kher and Supriya Pathak. In his last year of college he does what most rich kids in his place would do. Watch TV, play games, shop, eat and go clubbing.

After failing to both pass his exams as well as stick around in his father’s bathroom-furnishing office, he gets frustrated and takes it out on his poor doting mother. An un-amused Dad, tells him to apologize and again failing that he is sent packing out of the house. Young and egoistic he goes to stay with Aisha’s (Konkana Sen) who is his friend (in the real term) and then while there he finds both his direction in life as well as his love.

The stars of this movie are many.

Ayan Mukherjee for making a solid and confident movie. It can’t be easy to buck the trend and make a movie which has no dance in the hills or in some club. Infact most of the songs are in the background and thankfully no one lip-sync’s in the movie.

Most of the scenes are beautifully and naturally handled with no over the top drama.

Whether its the birthday scene with the bread, jam & matchstick or the nerdy girl helping Sid with his credit card situation or the fat girl’s elephantine outburst, it is all like life would be.

Supriya Pathak’s character begins off a little odd as she is constantly trying to ‘bond’ with her son over broken English but once her character is established you almost begin to sympathise with her.

Supriya is a very fine actress and in some of the simplest scenes with almost minimal dialogues she conveys so much. When she comes to Aisha’s flat with some money and mangoes your heart goes out to her as a simple mother and again when Sid comes home in between, their exchange is bereft of any of the usual hindi movie dramabaazi. Its just like how a doting mom and son would behave.

After an overdose of Kiron Kher’s over-the-top Punjabi-mother act in so many recent movies, Supriya is like a breath of fresh air. Just wish she would do more movies like this.

Konkana is as expected and very efficient and again without any drama, gives a very nuanced performance. As she begins to fall in love with Sid there is a subtle but clear change in how she looks at him and when he, as usual, playfully winks at her in the beach watch how she inhales just that little bit more. Takes your breath away. Literally.

Quite a lot has been made about Konkana being older than Ranbir and the movie tackles this issue head on and with no excuses. Frankly with the 40+ Aamirs, Salmans & Shah Rukhs routinely romancing the 20+ Kareenas & Deepikas why should the heroines not be given the same liberty. Its about time. I for one wouldn’t mind watching Rekha romancing Akshay. But wait a minute. Hasn’t she already done that?

But the movie belongs to Ranbir Kapoor. In just his third movie, he is so effortlessly charming that you must believe that acting skills are passed on genetically. He makes you believe in the character and as the movie progresses he makes you love him, he gets you exasperated, he irritates you and then charms you.

He is what YOU and many other friends of yours from college were. How can you not love such a Sid.

The songs by Shanker-Ehsaan-Loy are pleasant and very apt for the kind of movie this is but surprisingly it’s guest composer Amit Trivedi’s Iktara which forms the emotional anchor of the movie.

Even as I sit at home writing this review, Sunny Deol’s “Maa Tujhe Saalam” is playing on the TV. Till just a few years ago such crappy movies were the norm and with movies like Wake Up Sid you can only hope that Bollywood is waking up too.

But then again on the same day, the equally crappy Govinda’s “Do Knot Disturb” is also releasing so maybe not.

Watch it and you get to relive your college days again. What more can you ask from the movies.

Enjoy

Vish

* Sid keeps taking pictures of his own feet throughout the movie and its great that when one of his photos is selected for the “Shades of the Sea” section of his magazine, its of Konkana’s feet against the sea. Nice touch.