FRIENDSHIP/ DRAMA/ LOVE

Starring Tabu, Sanjay Suri, Sushmita Sen and Piyush Sen

Written & Directed by Meghnaa Gulzar        

  Music Anu Malik

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Farhan Akhtar, son of writer Javed Akhtar, came up with a wonderful coming-of-age movie about male bonding with Dil Chahta Hai. 

And with the success of that, the expectations instantly rose for yet another dubutant's movie. The person is none other than the young daughter of writer Gulzar, Meghna and the movie is Filhaal - a movie about friendship, love, happiness and above all, female bonding.

However things turns out to be different!

Rewa (Tabu) and Sia (Sushmita) are the best of friends. They have been that way since they first met when they were tiny toddlers and things haven't changed ever since.

They both shared a lot of common interests yet they were also a lot different as a person. Ria was a more romantic kind, looking forward to a happy married life with kids and all. And it looked to be all happening when she got married to Dhruv (Sanjay Suri).

Sia, the silent introvert, on the other hand wants to establish herself in her career before she can get married to a guy. So even though she has been proposed to thrice by Saahil (Palash), she has always avoided the subject.

Thus the movie shows how the lifes of these four get entangled as they go through experiences and emotions of all kind - a rollercoaster as life is.

Rewa finds herself shattered when she loses her child due to pregnancy complications. And at this moment her best buddy Sia decides to sacrifice everything up for Ria and be a surrogate mom for a child. However soon both the women seem to want the baby and soon their friendship turns sour.

Also put in the insecurity of Rewa when Dhruv spends more time with the new mother Sia, and also the moods of Saahil who has no clue to what Sia will do next.

    Meghnaa Gulzar ropes in Tabu and Sushmita Sen to play the roles of best buddies. And gets two cute guys too for the male parts, ensuring while the female audiences still would love to line up for the movie, no hero is let to take the credit away from the plot, theme or the central characters.

Definitely there is an attempt to bring something new, especially as far as Bollywood cinema. However the biggest problem here seems to be the pace. Megha knows the destination well, but she just thinks of keeping everyone wait much longer.

The biggest of all the setbacks is the songs. They first of all, are not the chart busters and secondly the come up with only an intention to bring the pace to a halt, not to push it forward. Except for the gm of the title track, the rest of the songs have nothing much to offer. One wonders why does such filmmakers stick to the song format if their screenplay does not require it?

The dialogues were very much natural. And Meghna also makes sure that the scenes does not get too melodramatic. But this is also what Meghnaa does wrong. When there were some scenes which demanded a bit of emotional overdoo, but here too Meghna refuses to do anything much about it. 

The theme is sensitive, no doubt, but Meghna's treatment is not sensitive enough. Agreed, that no one needs to over-react to many of the bold things going on, but that does not mean that they should not react at all. Most of the characters take things too easily, lessening the impact of the drama.

Tabu is once again at ease and A-rate in her role, but undoubtedly, it is Sushmita Sen who steals the show most of the times. finally we see Sushmita in a role of some substance, and this is definitely the first steps towards Sush the actress. After all those item numbers and support acts, she finally deserves something like Filhaal.

Sanjay Suri does well handling things between the two lovely ladies and proves once again, that he is an actor to be taken seriously. But Palash Sen needs to get back to the recording studio and leave acting to the professionals.

Meghna Gulzar did try, but leaves a lot to be desired. Meghna's treatment of the subject failed to live up to the boldness of the theme.