My Observations:: Dear Zindagi - Past - Present - Future!

Dear Zindagi - Past - Present - Future! 

I always write my views as Observations as I do not really want to impose myself on viewers of a film with my ramblings. Not that I can but this is just a humble way to remind you that whatever you read here is the Blog runners opinion but not something written on wall and you should take it with a pinch of salt. 

I am a fan of good cinema. For every film I enter the theatre with a belief that this film will be the greatest I am ever going to watch. Even the trailers may suggest otherwise, I do not really judge the book by its cover rather I wait to peel the content, embrace the feel a maker wants to deliver and then form my opinion about it. A story being said in silences and conversations, that is Dear Zindagi for you in a nutshell. 

It is not trying to be overly smart, not trying to make you like its characters by hook or crook. It just keeps flowing on screen asking you to embrace the life unfolding in front of you. Yes, you feel like really watching a girl named Kaira, whose aspirations, problems, issues feel real rather than filmy. They are not suddenly surfacing but the person looks to address only after knowing that a doctor can diagnose you without trying to judge you under what category you fall into and prescribe medicines accordingly. In mental health issues, how can you generalize? 

The movie is a beautiful conversation that you're happy to hear, pleased to know and wish to be a part off. Well, there is superficiality in some areas, but those flaws are muscled away slowly by a sucker punch that hits you real hard yet at a slower pace. That sort of punches stay with you all along. Aliaa Bhatt breathes like Kaira, twists like her and becomes her by the end of the film. You start seeing her sabotaging her blossoming relationship and career yet to feel the right decision made by her by observing her behavioural change after Shah Rukh's understatedly brilliant Jehangir Khan, Jug peels the layers with his eyes and words. 

Shah Rukh Khan here is not trying to be preachy doctor or a frustrated lover, but he is a soft-spoken killer here. He is friendly yet delivers the deadly blows in the form of questions. He cracks jokes, encourages them to be bettered but never tells you what you should do rather subtlely hints at the other way around for a situation. The possibility of understanding someone from their point of view and as just another person like us. This kind of therapists, if they exist, they should be given nobles and other highest prizes available. 

Having said all that, as a film Dear Zindagi does suffer from pacing and two wrong casting choices. When you feel like watching more about Jug and Kaira dynamic grow, as a patient doctor and friends, you are forced to visit a musician. That might have lend to a beautiful realisation but still it feels like the hard seed that you had to swallow while eating a soft and delicious strawberry cake. Barring its flaws, Dear Zindagi is a film that you should watch where ever and whenever you can!