October: Movie Review

Yep. The Loon watched a new Hindi movie, first since 'Trapped' and for the same pitch: it's not your typical Bollywood movie. 'October' is the work of Shoojit Sircar (director and producer) and Juhi Chaturvedi (screenplay) and is an interesting piece of film.

It's a bit tricky to tell you about the movie without giving away possible plot points even though it is no murder mystery. 'October' deals with a very real circumstance, an unfortunate circumstance, that many people deal with in many different forms. The narrative revolves around Dan (Varun Dhawan) a Hotel Management course student in his final semester, undergoing work training at a *top* hotel in Dwarka and how he deals with the daily struggles alongside his friends and fellow interns. One such colleague is the younger student, Shiuli (Banita Sandhu) who appears to be everything that Dan isn't - smart, reliable, responsible and an overall good person. 

It all changes when on New Year's Eve, all the employees and interns are having a mini-celebration at work (festive season is when hotels are busy) and Shiuli decided to sit on the parapet. She slips and falls three floors onto the garden and path below but doesn't die. Dan wasn't there that night and joins his friends in grief the next day, where he is informed that in the casual conversation, Shiuli's last words before the accident were "Where is Dan?" This one fact takes control of the young man's mind, while he struggles at work and in his personal life from his temperamental issues. For him, those could well have been Shiuli's last words, who is in the hospital paralyzed and in a coma which she may or may not recover from.

Dan is so affected by the accident and that particular comment that he seems to make it his purpose to be there for Shiuli and her family in this tough time, particularly when there seems to be an absence of hope. We are shown his extreme sensitivity to people's grief despite his other temperamental issues in work circumstances. But that is exactly where the plot feels to fall into the traps of what might well be the general thought process of the masses. 

Considering Dan and Shiuli were not exactly friends to begin with and the premise that holds him to the plot is borderline creepy. It is not a romantic story, but a story of love. Love for life and preserving it and hoping against the odds to protect it. But as a story that reflects on the harsh realities of life, there are moments that defy those realities just for the plot to make progress. It is also my cynical view of the Indian masses, given their current state and reputation, that this movie may encourage creepos to be a bother to females as a way to 'show their concern'. 

The movie is about being sensitive to tragic incidents, but I feel many of the masses will the point of it and that is tragic in itself. The movie itself is not what I'd call entertaining with its slow and sad narrative, but it is an artsy film which despite its major flaws manages to distinguish itself from the industries usual slew of filth and mindless stimuli. The performances from the actors were commendable, particularly from Banita Sandhu and I'd give 'October' a rating of 5 out of 7 stars.