REVIEW: Do Dooni Chaar (2)

THEY ARE FAMILY

Every middle class family that knows what it is like to stretch the family budget will identify with the Duggal family in Habib Faisal’s Do Dooni Char.

Rishi and Neetu Kapoor Kapoor, a glamorous star couple in real life, play the beleaguered Santosh and Kusum Duggal. He is a schoolteacher whose meagre income, in spite of moonlighting at a coaching class, barely covers basic expenses and the growing demands of teenage kids Sandeep (Archit Krishna) and Payal (Aditi Vasudev). The old fridge groans, the new TV is just a dream, and fancy things like ipods are not even considered.

The kids may be disgruntled because everybody is better off than they are, but it is still a happy, caring family. Things start going wrong when Duggal’s sister insists that they all attend a wedding in her family and arrive in a car, or it would shame her in front of her in-laws.

After finding every option too expensive, they borrow a neighbour’s (Akhilendra Mishra) car, the whole trip ending in unexpected disaster. Duggal decides that his self-respect has taken enough of a battering and declares that he will buy a car. And that sets him off on a difficult trek of self-realisation.

Faisal has created a warm middle-class world where in spite of tension within the family and a certain keeping up of pretenses, there is also support and caring. The film may not have the sharp conflicts that a film like Khosla Ka Ghosla, set in a similar middle class Delhi milieu managed, and does get all fuzzy headed and preachy in the end, but the lead and supporting characters are utterly real, believable and mostly likeable.

Neetu Kapoor looks sweet and simple but doesn’t have much to chew on -- in keeping with the housewife image, she is seen constantly cooking and cleaning. But Rishi Kapoor is extraordinary -- whether it is hiding his consternation at the cost of a ‘cheap’ car or bonding with his troubled son.

Do Dooni Char is a long overdue tribute to teachers and a feel good film in the real sense of the word -- if feeling good is defined as enjoying the little joys of life and not as singing songs in New York. 

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[Deepa Deosthalee]

FYI, Deepa Golhat's 'Do Dooni Chaar' review is also available on humsafar.com with the para on Neetu Singh's housewife image highlighted. :)