Her depiction of Alia and her life story is effortless and seamless. Gauri who has directed the much acclaimed English Vinglish has done a great job with Dear Zindagi. Day 1 of Dear Zindagi, and guess what, the multiplex is almost houseful.īut it is not SRK who is pulling the crowd today, this time around it is the director Gauri Shinde and the powerhouse of talent Alia Bhatt. But everyday is not Sunday, and today it was absolutely different. It becomes radical and revolutionary.First some good news.I dared to watch SRK's FAN on Day 1 and to my surprise the muliplex in Pune was almost vacant. And just like that, it rises above white noise. Refreshingly, Dear Zindagi argues that just every other physical ailment like fever, your mind needs a tune up from time to time and there is no shame in asking for help.
You may also like: VIDEO: Watching Aamir Khan Going from 97 Kgs to a Six-pack for Dangal is not for the Faint-hearted There is a deep-seated fear of being labelled “mental” or weak-willed that results in millions suffering in silence. In the average Indian household, any member going through a mentally stressful time is given a plethora of advice (ranging from diet to exercise to even prayer) that has nothing to do with therapy.
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However, at the end of the day, the movie can be and should be forgiven for all the wish-fulfillment it proffers upon the audience for one simple reason – it argues that those who seek professional help to get mentally fit are not “nut cases”. The audience would certainly be forgiven for rolling their eyes when Jugs doles out incredibly corny advice to Kaira that wouldn’t be out of place in a Paulo Coelho book (given that he charges her Rs 3,000 per session, one could rightly claim that she gets stiffed big time). In the Tamil film 3, Dhanush’s character is bipolar but the film is a thriller with little insight into the problems of those who are bipolar and the ending is disappointing and disheartening. In Bhool Bhulaiya, Vidya Balan’s character has dissociative identity disorder but structurally the movie is a supernatural horror film than an understanding of a real illness that is treatable (and the treatment is so completely out of the box that it probably had therapists hyperventilating in laughter). This isn’t the first time mental illness has been addressed in Indian cinema. Disturbed and unable to sleep, she makes the proactive decision to seek help from Jugs (Shahrukh Khan, in a surprisingly restrained portrayal), a therapist with an unorthodox approach to therapy. You may also like: Dear Zindagi: 5 Bollywood ‘Slice of Life’ Movies That Gave Us Something to Think AboutĪfter one romantic liaison implodes spectacularly (and with it taking away the opportunity to work on a dream assignment), Kaira packs her bags and heads home to figure out the next move in life. Her main problems are that she sabotages her own romantic relationships and has a complicated equation with her family based in Goa. She has a tight group of friends she loves and she is financially stable. She is ambitious and career-driven (which is refreshing because most of us are still scratching our heads trying to figure out exactly what Anushka Sharma’s character did for a living in Ae Dil Hain Mushkil), and finds purpose and enjoyment in her job. Kaira, played by Alia Bhatt, is a unique woman by Bollywood standards. The only difference between this film and a film like Ek Main Aur Ek Tu, is that the lead seeks out therapy rather than romance or even friendship to fix her problems.
It is, after all, a typical feel-good romper featuring preternaturally good-looking leads, a serendipitous meet between a girl and a boy, and a subsequent relationship that acts as a catalyst for the rest of the story. Superficially speaking, there is not much that sets Gauri Shinde’s Dear Zindagi apart from other commercial Indian films.