NOT JUST A MOVIE REVIEW!!

NOT JUST A MOVIE REVIEW!!

I saw the movie CLUB 60 today and it was a surprisingly pleasant and enjoyable experience!!

I basically went for the movie as it is the last movie in which the late Farooque Shaikh has acted and the fact there is still a show of a not –much-talked-about movie in the theatre five weeks after its release!!

Based on the title and starcast featuring some of the finest Indian actors, I had thought it would be a movie about grappling with the problems of old age!!

But, in fact, it turned out to be a movie “FOR ALL AGES” in the real sense of the word!!

The plotline of the movie is deceptively simple on paper – An elderly married couple, both doctors, Farooque Shaikh as Tariq, a neurosurgeon and Sarika as Saira (looking simply beautiful… I bet she can give her own daughter Shruti Hassan a run for her money even now) shift from Pune to Mumbai after the loss of their young son in a shootout killing in USA.

The couple is devastated but the mother tries to get back to her life by starting to practice again and keeping herself busy but the father does not cope well with the tragedy and stops practicing, becomes withdrawn and goes into Depression.

Enter Mannubhai Shah( Raghuvir Yadav  in supreme form), their nosy neighbour who coaxes the doctor into joining a club where he and his sexagenarian friends hang out playing tennis, cracking stupid jokes at each other, reciting poetry and ogling at pretty girls.. Ha-ha!!

And thus begins a wonderful journey of adjustment, bonding, relationships, joy, grief, friendship and LIFE as such.

The basic premise of the movie may appear simple but it is in the different well directed and expertly executed scenes depicting everyday conversations that not so simple issues are addressed!!

In possibly one of the best scenes of the movie, Sarika asks the psychiatrist treating her husband that should the fact that she does not experience as much grief as her husband for their son’s loss make her feel guilty? Does it mean she loved her son less?

In one of the best explanations ever given on celluloid, the psychiatrist replies, “In the aftermath of an earthquake, some walls of a house are destroyed whereas some are left standing. It does not mean that the walls that haven’t fallen have not experienced the full force of the earthquake… it’s just that they have coped better”

And in such simple conversations lies the beauty of the movie and dare I say, even Life!!

In our everyday lives, we experience a lot of ups and downs!! In spite of the fact that Change is inevitable, nobody is comfortable with the idea of change!!

We wallow in our sorrows and setbacks, and feel sad and frustrated and helpless!!

We think “Oh God!!! Why are we so unlucky?”

But, if we see the larger picture, every person, every family around us has their share of sorrows and tragedies – and invariably by introspection, our tribulations then seem insignificant.

I know it is easier said than done, but if we start taking ourselves a little less seriously, and try to just live life as it comes, the world might not seem as bad as it appears to be!!

I am not saying that that situations will become rosy overnight or that our problems will suddenly present themselves with a solution, but lightening up a bit might just make us emotionally more capable of dealing with them, even if they worsen.

The movie explores these lines of thought and more, in a not-so-serious manner, but never mockingly.

I missed my Mom a lot while watching the movie as I think she would also have enjoyed the movie.

It is rare enough nowadays for two complete strangers sitting side by side to even glance at each other in a city like Mumbai. But today, the audience was enjoying the movie together wholeheartedly!! And me and an elderly lady (most probably my mother’s age) sitting next to me acknowledged each other as we laughed together at some of the jokes cracked onscreen!!

I don’t remember, apart from 3 idiots, to have experienced such a thing in a theatre before!!

Kudos to the director Sanjay Tripathy and team for making such an enjoyable movie!! 

Credit is due to them as the movie never sounds sermonic or goes around giving life lessons, but just depicts Life as it is!! The dialogues are some of the best in recent times.

Although I doubt this movie will last for another week (there is only one show in a single Multiplex in Mumbai right now), but I would advise you to watch this movie, in which the characters are common people like you and me instead of the some of the crappy mindless movies being shown as a sorry excuse for the power of the common man!!

If not, catch this movie on DVD if you can... it is a must watch with your entire family!! Raghuvir Yadav’s spectacular performance is reason enough.

IT IS SO SIMPLE TO BE HAPPY

BUT SO DIFFICULT TO BE SIMPLE!!