UDTA PUNJAB... I AM NOT A LOSER, NOT STILL BROKEN







Pic.: Anima D'Cunha


Seconds before my wife and I walked into the theatre, last evening, I received a phone call from one of our friends, a lady. When I told her that we were walking into the theatre, she asked, “Which movie?”

“Udta Punjab,” I replied.

“It’s a dark movie,” our friend warned, “It might disturb you.”

Both my wife and I knew ‘Udta Punjab’ would be a hard-hitting and a no-nonsense movie and we were prepared for it… So, I did not let our friend’s view cloud mine…

My wife and I both loved the movie.

And, yes, we both have been great fans of Alia Bhatt… and, here was one more reason why we had to admire her even more.

To me, the movie is about ‘hope’ and ‘despair’ of individuals…

There is this one scene where Shahid Kapoor and Alia Bhatt, who were deeply addicted and who were on the run, meet at a hiding place. They click. Shahid, despite tasting stardom as a rock star, now has resigned as a ‘Loser’… He has even declared it with his hair-cut. Alia, despite being a village field-hand, and having gone through ‘hell’ all along, believes there ‘is’ a better tomorrow… She wants to live. When Shahid thinks aloud and says to her, “Shall we both commit suicide?” She blasts, “Get lost… I am not a loser… I am not still broken.” Then, she tells him what she had been dreaming… “There was this huge hoarding I would see through the window of the house I was confined… It was about Goa… a young girl inviting me to come and relax on the serene beaches of Goa… I would see that image everyday and dream about the place… that day… that moment of freedom… It called me every day as I kept living in misery.”

These may not be the exact dialogues of Alia. But, this is, certainly, the message…

Alia doesn’t want to end her life as a ‘loser’, and she sees that her ‘stranger- friend’ – Shahid, too, doesn’t end-up as one.

Is ‘Udta Punjab’ a dark movie?

I think, it is ‘bright’!

GERALD D’CUNHA

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