Chandigarh
29 February 2020
DIVYA AZAD
In Doordarshan, a family comedy film released on Friday, a grandmother Darshana goes into coma and suddenly opens her eyes after 30 years. A lot has happened meanwhile. Her school-going son Sunil (Manu Rishi Chadha) has married his childhood friend Priya (Mahie Gill), they have two teenage children. The couple is in the middle of a divorce. The film has been getting good response from the viewers.
With the doctor’s warning that Darshana (Dolly Ahluwalia) must not undergo emotional disturbances of any sort. Therefore, Sunil pretends to still be in school, not yet married. Leave aside his children or divorce. The movie seems to be inspired by Wolfgang Becker’s German movie Good Bye Lenin (2003),
Doordarshan, the only channel during the 90’s, is brought back on the TV and things are made as if nothing has changed. Sunil trains his children and their friends to do various roles.
The film is written and directed by Gagan Puri. Humour is created through many ways, like showing the romance between Sunil’s son Sunny (Shardul Rana) and his landlord’s daughter (Mehak Manwani) and Sunil’s row with his landlord and his childhood friend (Rajesh Sharma).
If we talk about acting, Dolly Ahluwalia looks like a Punjabi grandmother. Manu Rishi Chadha has done well ahd has played his role with dignity. Manu has played many roles in his 18 years in Hindi cinema and aced them all. The actor-writer-lyricist moved to Mumbai to chase his dream of acting in Hindi films after doing theatre in Delhi for 10 years.
Rishi says, “I will always call myself a supporting actor. But I am happy this story is told from my point of view. Being part of a good film is in itself a big thing. So I am happy.”