REVIEW: Udaan (2)

GROWING UP PANGS

It isn't easy being a teenager at the best of times. But it's much worse if you're living in a society that doles out values and morality in an autocratic and often arbitrary manner. It's almost equally difficult to make an individualistic film in the claustrophobic, narrow-minded environs of Hindi cinema where stars and locations matter more than scripts and visual flair. Hats off to Vikramaditya Motwane then, for pulling off Udaan, a coming-of-age film, which resonates with the kind of defiance and strength of character that makes fine human beings of ordinary mortals and great cinema out of a simple plot.   

A bunch of lively boys in a boarding school in Shimla practice disobedience as a way of  life. They poke fun at their teachers, are unrepentant at being punished and have the uncanny ability to get into trouble on a regular basis. One night they sneak out of the hostel to watch Kanti Shah ke Angoor (a film that would've never found a mention in Hindi film history but for this) in a seedy cinema house. They're caught by their teacher, who happens to be in the same auditorium trying to smooch his female companion in the dark. This is one of many indictments of the hypocrisy of figures of authority the film highlights, without being obviously preachy.

The boys are expelled and Rohan (Rajat Barmecha) finds himself back in Jamshedpur (a deliberate choice, one would imagine) with his father (Ronit Roy), only to discover he also has a six-year-old step brother Arjun (Aayan Boradia, a stunner) he's never heard of. The father has adopted his own progenitor's patriarchal values en masse and is then saddled with his own failures, adding up to a lethal combination of anger, frustration and ego. So he runs this all-male household with an iron hand and systematically beats down any attempt on Rohan's part to break free. The harder he tries to fit his unconventional son into a stereotype -- study engineering, not literature, earn money and get respectable -- the more Rohan rebels. What makes the boy's character remarkable is his ability to digest his father's mental, verbal and physical torture and still be his own self in little ways. 

He bunks college to sit by the lake or on the railway tracks penning poetry. He steals money from his father's wallet and after the old man has drunk himself to sleep, takes his weather-beaten car into town for a night of drinking and loitering around with his new friends. But the only semblance of real human contact he has is with his old Shimla friends who now live in Mumbai and work at a restaurant owned by one of their fathers. And with his uncle (Ram Kapoor) who dotes on the boys and tries his best to talk reason into his older brother, with little success. 

Meanwhile Arjun, who seems unable to process the father's bizarre behaviour, finds comfort in Rohan's warmth and just having this understanding older brother around soften life's blows. Your heart goes out to this helpless boy stuck in a situation many children in India must be facing with varying degrees of severity. Yet, bad parenting isn't a subject that finds favour with Hindi cinema. Why would it? We are the sellers of dreams about 'ideal' tradition-bound families. 

Motwane gets everything right, from the characterisation, casting, locations and dialogue (the dialect of small-towns in Central India seems perfect) to the dynamics of individual moments -- Rohan's wistful phone conversations with his friends, the entire segment following Arjun's hospitalisation, and the brutal, but believable coldness of the father towards his own sons. The sleepy town of Jamshedpur, lovingly captured by cinematographer Mahendra Shetty, is a refreshing change from superficial consumerist metros of dazzling malls and foreign locales that look pretty, but far removed from reality of life in India.  

Every performance is spot on. The rage Ronit Roy evokes is testimony to his success as the insufferable patriarch. Boradia has eyes that sparkle with life and an intuitive presence that tugs at your heartstrings. Barmecha is outstanding as the endearing, dreamy adolescent trapped in a life he can scarcely control. There's a quiet poise to his personality that brings to Rohan the ability to brush himself and rise up to the next challenge life poses. 

Finally, Udaan is the film 3 Idiots could have been. An honest, heart-felt plea for understanding and empathy from parents, teachers and society at large, to let young boys and girls follow their hearts fearlessly and with conviction. Hats off to Motwane for seeing his own dream through and co-writer and producer Anurag Kashyap for backing him up.