Dasvidaniya – Our common lives, and some fun
Dasvidaniya Movie Review
iView Author: Varun Grover (Mumbai, India)
Email: varun.grover26 [at] gmail [dot] com
I do start with the obvious disadvantage to objectivity – of having known all the key people related with the film (Shashant, Arshad, and Vinay) and hence will try my best to calibrate the words accordingly.
But first – three questions. Have you ever walked into a regular doctor’s clinic and been scared or put off by those ugly ‘public service’ posters with the picture of a rotting lung or a beyond-repair ulcer? Do you have a parent (or set of) who is irritating, embarrassing, may be almost senile, and you still love her/him/them. And do you see the subtle humor in such situations, characters, and details of life? It is the keen sense of observations like these that make Dasvidaniya the special film it is.
The story, in one line, is of a 37-year old Amar Kaul making a list of some things to do before he dies, and like his ordinary life, his ambitions are also pretty ordinary, but engrossing and revealing at the same time. (Ok! That was a pretty long line.)
Dasvidaniya, on the face of it, is a pretty simple straightforward film with almost a template like story – and neither the director nor the writer makes any effort to ‘hide’ the story from you. You always know where it’s going, you know the mood, heck you know the whole list. But still, and in fact, in spite of yourself, you love the way it proceeds because of the Seinfeld-ian world it creates and the cameos it employs to lift each little ‘chapter’ in Amar Kaul’s life. A guitar-teacher who doesn’t think Vodka is right since it’s not white, a mother who loves her TV but can’t stand the complex remotes, a Russian prostitute who loves Dev Anand songs, and a stuck-in-a-time-warp philosophy-spouting lukhha (Ranvir’s cameo) are among the various episodes of Amar’s list. And then, there is this crazy, almost tangential hat-tip to the 80’s cinema with a reference to Gunmaster G-9 and “Maa mandir gayi hai” line.
Ensemble cast, as expected, is bang-on. Joy Fernandez (reminiscent of Javed Jaferrey’s Mac character from Timepass), Neha Dhupia (and her decoding dumb-C scene will make you go ‘where am I? What is she drinking? Is it the same Julie?’), Sarita Joshi (check out her happiness in the car-scene) and Gaurav Gera stand-out, while Ranvir and Suresh Menon could have been better used. (Though both get the chuckles going in their super-mini roles.) The only part which can leave you a bit cold or make you go ‘why oh why?’ is the use of Amar’s ‘antar-aatma’ and his conversations with the dying man. In addition to being repetitive, the part looked too convenient at places.
But then, the film has too many things going for it, and the best among them is – Vinay Pathak. Coming off ‘Bheja Fry’, this was a tough ask – to perform a common Joe, unwanted, forced into (hiding) emotions; and still doing it as differently from his earlier role as Sachin’s straight drive is from Dada’s square cut. Vinay adds (a word surely vague and fancy but so true that I can’t resist using it) ‘honesty’ in huge dollops and makes Amar Kaul a man who could make us smile just by smiling himself. It is because of him that the film never reaches a point where you ’sympathize’ with Amar Kaul…and lose the bigger ironies of this stupid world.
In the end, it doesn’t claim to be a life-changing-experience, nor does it try to push some magic philosophy down your throats – all it does is, to walk with Amar Kaul a few blocks and get his to-do list done. And it does that well.
Tags: Bollywood, Dasvidaniya, Vinay Pathak
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
One performance that stood out for me is the one of Amar Kaul’s brother. He was better than anyone in the film.
Sad. We don’t have roles for such actors. And yeah, agree with the Alter Ego format. It appeared to be very convenient. But probably, considering our viewers, sometimes you HAVE TO over-explain things.
Good one, overall.
Yes PJ…that is Gaurav Gera, who played Amar Kaul’s brother. He was excellent…as always.
hats off to vinay pathak!!! the beauty of the film is that it arouses emetions like the notes of music in your heart and still prevents the tears (except once may be)i wonder why we dont make more Dasvidaniyas instead of making Dostanas and Deshdrohis!!Vinay Pathak has played the character to perfection and has left all similar characters far behind.
wonderful film…performances were absolutely stunning…i recommend it to all the people looking out for quality cinema..hope to see plenty more such films coming out of bollywood
dasvidaniya…anand revisited.
@ Dilnawaz
Anand revisited it is NOT. In fact, it’s at the other end of the spectrum dealing with death. Such easy slots make for a very bad indicator…and hope u see the film before making more of such ‘i-have-to-say-something-so-lets-say-ANYTHING’ kind of comments.
Hey Varun,
I was slightly less enthusiastic while coming out of it. Was expecting lot more from it…the film failed to touch me as I expected (and hoped) it too. I feel it’s kind of a reverse phenomenon operating here at PFC – small is good, big is bad (not speaking about your response in particular as you have been fair enough to state the connection at the very start of the review). So much so that even average or mediocre small films get lapped up and decent big budgeters are flanked. What most people fail to understand is that the commercial pressure on a big film is so much more given the economics and the hence the need to spread out and reach to the Lowest Common Denominator. On the other hand, once you go out to make a small film, say a Dasvidaniya, you have no such economics at work. So one tends to expect a lot more from a film like this…expect it to go all out and hold no punches.
Frankly, I was quite disappointed with the film. It wasn’t bad, by no means, but it failed to go beyond a certain level in terms of the emotional content. And then, some really odd choices – the alter-ego suddenly appearing in the 30th minute and then, just as suddenly, choosing to become the narrator of the film (the backstories) around the 60th minute…the backstories themselves – no seed ins till about an hour – they suddenly appeared all of a sudden and looked totally out of place in a film like this…the Suresh Menon scene (in the 90th minute of the film…I mean we are supposed to go for the emotional jugular at that point…why fall into the Laughter CHallenge trap there. The Gaurav Gera scene looked inspired from Bucket List (where Nicholson goes to make up with his estranged daughter). Now that worked for me in Bucket List, given Nicholson’s character – that of someone who didn’t care about relationships. The one here looked totally out of place – Amar Kaul didn’t look the kind of character who would let go of a brother…was way too forced a setting.
Of course, there were lots of good things about the film – the performances (esp Vinay – brilliant…would love to work with him some day), the music, even the shot taking (honestly, surprised me…was expecting something on the lines of the Bheja Fry treatment)…but as i said, it failed to raise the bar…failed to touch me emotionally, except for that one Dumb Charade scene (even the set up for that, I thought, was rather forced…Sitting on the dining table and suddenly mentioning the dumb charade game they used to play…no mention in the sepia toned backstories).
An honest, straight from the heart effort. And I applaud it for that. But that’s all there is to it. IMHO.
@Sudip
Now that’s a review! I tend to agree with you on many points…especially the appearing of alter-ego and its subsequent use.
But as you said – ’small is good’ psychology might be at work here. (in addition to my suspect objectivity.) Though you do point to the reverse psychology, i.e. expect more from small films, and i am sure most of us do.
For me, the film worked (in spite of the very valid points u mentioned) because it never promises a ‘continuity of mood’ per se…it promises a list, which to start with, had items as varied as ‘geyser’ and ‘lauki’ on the same menu. So, the film was (i guess) intentionally episodic in nature.
The catch, for the writer and the director, would have been how to end it now. As there was no real progression of mood, no hanging deadlines mentioned or being chased…
And then, the way it ends, with Amar leaving gifts for everyone and his brother and friend discussing about him in a casual manner, that kind of satisfied me. It was not a high-jump….just a 4×100 meter relay.
IMO it was never really meant to raise the emotional bar…just meant to show (to quote Seinfeld again) the “nothingness” of it all, through some interesting characters and one motivated man.
(And your points about back-stories and loose set-ups is still valid…but somehow, i was not thrown-off by them.)
Thanks anyways.
Varun for me it was a high jump … 5 ft apt.
hmmm..look who is on PFC
Good review…way to go Varun!!
Do you know its inspired ?
@Playback
Inspired from where? If you are going to say ‘The Bucket list’ then i’d say ‘may be’, but with a completely different list, completely different central character, and hence developing into a completely different film.
Any other info if u have, please share.
Varun I’m looking fwd to watching the film after all the good reviews. I’m just curious to know whether “Ikiru” was ever a frame of ref while writing the script.
saw it…overall didn’t work for me….
it is neither a “moving” story like Anand…nor a feel-good turn-it-into-a-larger-than-life like “The Last Holiday”….both more adept ways of dealing with the same subject (Haven’t seen Bucket List!)…this one falls somewhere in between…the idea of To-Do list itself is boring even if its the one before you die….and if you choose to showcase a common man’s humdrum existence on cinema….its already an uphill task..to strike a cord…….not helped in the least by amateurish direction….
the script is full of contrivances…just to pick an example…as per Amar Kaul’s character established till then….the first thing he does after finding out his condition is to hit the bar right away….and get a drink for the first time in life?? and then tell a complete stranger, very unlikely a mate for him, uninhibitedly that he is going to die….???
Why does he need an alter ego at all then to tell him to do “different” things???
and then lady love suddenly appearing to stop him from committing suicide???
the only saving grace……..Vinay, though not perfect, comes across earnest despite of poorly executed scenes…..clearly the most difficult role he has ever attempted…and showed that he still has few things left to learn….but i appreciate the effort..
@Pradeep
I can understand what you are saying….the film has that element which could make you feel that you are not watching a ‘film’ and may feel let-down due to such treatment/writing/logic. But i’d say, that’s exactly the reasons it worked for me.
It works on a very internal level…just like a relationship. But still…i get what you are saying. It could fail, and as one more review by a friend points out (in all earnestness) – “Do not try to appreciate this movie any further than the first impression it had on you – if it dint move you, perfectly fine – your day will come!” (Link to his blog: http://expressoholic.blogspot.com/ )
And for more, check this blog by Mihir Pandya, one of the best reviews of Dasvidaniya i have read till now.
http://www.mihirpandya.com/2008/11/dasvidaniya-review
(Though the link is given in just the above comment too.)
First as you said.. you noticed the ‘maine pyar kiya’ poster. but varun I didn’t noticed the ’shadow-of-deewaar’ effect in dialog “ma mandir gayi hai.” sharp observation.. so yahan tumne bazi maari!
baat yahan se isliye shuru kar raha hoon ki shayad is tarah main is film aur is hi tarah ki kuch aur films ki khasiyat bata paaunga. tumne aur maine yah baat pahle bhi ki hai ki KKG ya Dasvidaniya jaisi films ki detailing kamaal ki hai. aisi sharp writing hai aur hamara sharp observation to bas use complement karta hai. asal tareef jaideep sahni/ dibakar banarjee aur shashant shah/ arshad seyed jaise makers ki hai jo detailing par itna dhyaan de rahe hain. Dasvidaniya me to shayad uske analgesic syrup ka brand tak script me likha hoga aisa lagta hai! us ‘khaas tasweer’ me bhi kinaron par hath lag jaane se kharaab hone ke nishaan saaf dikh rahe the. kamaal hai yaar sach me!
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