REVIEW: The Great Indian Butterfly

WHO SAYS THINGS LIKE 'UBIQUITOUS'?

There's a secret valley mentioned in the Mahabharata where the Pandavas found this rare insect that gave them eternal peace and happiness. The fable is lost and it takes some white guy to write a book about it and chart maps about the secret valley. There are many people looking for the forgotten secret valley which is in Goa, by the by, among them are Barry John and Aamir Bashir.

That said, the movie begins with Aamir and Sandhya Mridul doing the married-couple-fight-all-the-time routine: he overslept, so they missed the flight to Goa. She's cribbing (what was she doing when he overslept, is the first 'duh' moment) you're always doing this, you're always ruining our holiday, you're uncaring, you're selfish and so on. He's trying to get alternate routes to Goa. Hmm...there are more than one flight out of Bombay to Goa, and the happy movie Bombay to Goa comes immediately to mind. But nooooo, the director is a film school alumni, and he wants to explore marital relationships...

So we are subjected to endless cribbing and nagging and needless fighting and name calling for 425 kilometers to Panaji. Anyone who has driven to Goa from Bombay knows that it takes you anything from 10 to 12 hours, and that when the company is dull the journey feels longer. But the director allows them two days and a night to reach Goa. Meanwhile the ridiculous whining from both husband and wife continues: my job is shit, i am stressed, it is your fault, no it is yours, you're an idiot, no you are...

Oh there are many comic interludes. Barry John pops up reminding us of the invisible butterfly and the hidden valley. He reminds you he's a teacher by enunciating words like 'ubiquitous' and 'soul' and manages to keep a straight face when he spouts, 'Happiness is a state of the mind'. But the fun begins when you start noticing that the comedy is in the screenplay. At one point Barry John talks about his wife, 'Irene left me...Peace will come to you also.'

Aah, so we know that the one sure way to marital happiness is separation. So Aamir and Sandhya separate. She walks out of the hotel room in a rage (she overhears her husband speak to his ex girl Liza and suspects an affair) wears a pretty butterfly skirt and gets drunk, and manages to look pretty when she flops down in on the beach and cries her heart out with waves crashing about her (rah, rah film school!). Aamir frantically goes in search for her straight to the ATM when he discovers the wallet is empty. We think aaah, she's cleaned him out, good! But no such luck. He's missing her! But instead of calling her or texting her he happily drives off in search of the valley of peace and happiness, and finds it! 

Then in the most illogical coincidences, both bump into each other on the road, hug and make up (i said hug, because the kisses they share in the film are so gross you'd rather see Kambakht Ishq again). the camera pulls back in horror because Sandhya announces, 'Let's become farmers, have babies and watch them grow.' This from the woman who hears dead babies in the middle of the night.

Pity they took themselves so seriously. Had it been a spoof, it would have been named the funniest film of the year.

Comments

[Deepa]

Hilarious review! Glad I missed this week's releases... :)

[suniti]

Good I caught this review in time. It sounded like a cool movie!

-s

[IdeaSmith]

The movie does serve an important purpose. It provides an airconditioned place with virtually 100% privacy. What better place to cool off with a date than to be the only ones in a hall and without even the distraction of a good story? ;-)

[Nita]

Great review Manisha!

[Sarthak Dasgupta]

dear ms.gehlot,

thanks for taking time out first to watch the film and then to review it. you are a veteran and respected journalist/writer/editor. so i'll not engage you in your opinion about the film. however i'm compelled to write here to correct some misinformations you have fed to your unwitting followers. very evident, it was your oversight, but needs correction.

1. What was she doing in the first duh moment: you perhaps chose to not hear that he had put the phone on silent under his pillow. so clearly, she was also sleeping. thought people didn't need that exposition.

2. There are many flights to Goa: clearly again, the guy is calling up travel agents and gets up after he finds out all flights for today as well as tomorrow are full. did you miss this bit?

3. the director is a film school alumni: who ever told you that? im a BE electronics and an MBA in Finance from an ivy league institute in the country. in fact you are friends with me in facebook. my profile clearly mentions all these details.

4. they take two days and a night to reach goa: which film are you talking about? the guys here take exactly the same hours you mentioned it generally takes.

5. aamir goes to the ATM to find his wallet empty: again what are you talking about? hard to believe that you haven't understood simple things. he ran to the ATM to look for her.

6. ...instead of calling her...: did you miss his frustration for not being able to reach her on the phone as it is switched off?

7. they bump on the street: again you seem to have missed them talking about their locations.

i want you to know, don't grudge your oversight and i want to believe it was with no malicious intent. im ok you have found the film shit. it was anyway not meant for everyone.

but may i request you to at least not misinform your readers. people like me still have a lot of hope on your pen.

Sarthak Dasgupta

[Sarthak Dasgupta]

apologies to ms. gehlot. i realized a bit too late that it was not by ms. gehlot, but ms. lakhe.

my points remain the same however, but now directed to ms. manisha lakhe.

[manisha lakhe]

mr dasgupta, let's get one thing straight. we love movies. i wish instead of nitpicking with critics, you had made a better film!

remember anubhav? or the bangla Jatugriho by tapan sinha? your theme is not new. and you fail to make your audience empathize with either of the characters. and i am not alone who has this opinion (barring Minty Tejpal in Mumbai Mirror and he too gave it two stars). if people throng to the theaters for the film, i am willing to see it again and will rewrite the review.

of course i can nit-pick, by saying why didn't SHE have an alarm on HER mobile and so on but it would as tedious as Barry John's dialog in the film.

your heart is in the right place, but friends and family saying it is pathbreaking cinema is not going to help you and you will make mistakes like you did with the name of the reviewer.

here's to creating better movies!

[Jk]

dear mr. sarthak, .

as a viewer, I would be keen to know if the movie is meant for me. If its not meant for everyone, then which is this specific category of people for whom its made ..? and then why release it for wide public viewing where most people haven't enjoyed it.

[Deepa Krishnan]

Sarthak, thank you for clarifying the points in the story Ms Lakhe missed out.

I was a little surprised at Ms Lakhe's comment in the first place. "What was she doing when he overslept". Clearly Ms Lakhe believes wives are responsible for getting their husbands out of bed and on time for flights :) Or perhaps Ms Lakhe simply doesn't understand how one partner can make another partner late for flights, whether it is by lingering in the bathroom, or forgetting something at the last minute, or really a zillion other ways.

At least my household doesn't need excuses such as "the cell phones was on silent" and so on - we have managed to be spectacularly late even without that :)

- Deepa

[Deepa Gahlot]

Dear Ms Krishnan,

Since the point of debate is the 'wake up'... I too found it odd that the woman grumbles so much about all er "preparation" going down the drain. If the vacation meant so much to her, why did she depend totally on the husband to wake her up? If she is married to him for some span of time, she probably knows he is the absent-minded type. The dialogue later also seems to imply that he is, sort of, oblivious to her problems. I don't think Ms Lakhe means to suggest it is the wife's job to wake up the husband, but that she could have woken herself up. Then there would have been no film. We grant Mr Dasgupts his plot point, but the nagging wife stereotype was a bit much to take.

Deepa

[s jaywant]

loved the dialogue following the critique more than any film i've read about. more power to your pen, ms lakhe. and to your camera, too, sir.

[Kanika]

Enjoyed the review more than the movie :D

Also "" im a BE electronics and an MBA in Finance from an ivy league institute in the country. in fact you are friends with me in facebook. my profile clearly mentions all these details.""

Apart from isolating prospective audience with his comment "Movie is not meant for everyone (??) " the quoted statement made me laugh. Why should the reviewer check your academic credentials to critique your film?
And simply stating "I'm not a film school alumni " would have been enough,w hy mention"IVY league" ?? If you can't make a good movie ,you'll flaunt your alma mater,is it?

Drab characters, though I like all of the actors in the other works they have done, but they all make a big snoring bore in this movie.

[Nova]

haha what kind of director comes onto critique forums to defend his own film?!! The audience should be doing that for you sir! And if they're not, it's probably just 'coz the film isn't all that you think is it!!

[suniti]

Enjoying this hugely :)

[Bidisha]

Love the fight!
Hee ehaaaheeahaaa (evil laughter)

[SuperHypersonic]

Nova's comment says it all!