While waiting for my husband, I lazily browsed through options to watch on TV. I accidentally tripped over a movie called 'October'. Amazon ordinarily explained it as a simple love story of two interns working at a hotel. Why I started watching it was because it was less than two hours movie!
The character of Varun Dhawan (called Dan) was very real-like; a carefree hotel intern. Looked like a correct guy at a wrong place. Banita Sandhu called Shuili made her debut with this movie. Gitanjali Rao (also a debutant) aptly played the role of Shuili's mother; perfectly balancing the intelligence and stress of her character.
It started just as it was explained- simply. Dan and Shuili are just shown to be two hotel interns who are not very interested in each other. The ease with which Shuili performs her duties is where Dan struggles the most. There is no sign of any affair in them. Both are quite opposite to each other but both are natural. This is where it struck a chord with me!
The only scene they share together one to one is when Dan while sleeping in the staff room of the hotel spills Shuili's flowers- parijat flowers; seasonal, beautiful and fragrant flowers of parijat.
The story takes a twist when Shuili accidentally falls from the terrace of the hotel. The blood clots in her brain and she is severely injured. Rest of the movie she spends on the bed.
Like other colleagues Dan also goes and meets her in the hospital. He is quite shaken after visiting Shuili; whose head is shaven, face swollen and is covered with all kinds of tubes and monitors around her in the ICU. The doctor declares her to be in coma. Dan is still unaware about the turn his life is going to take.
Dan and Shuili's common friend reiterates how the accident happened to Dan who was not present there. She mentions they were discussing about him only. Shuili just asked 'Where is Dan?' and she fell off. This is where Dan starts thinking about Shuili.
He says may be that is the last sentence of her life. May be she was interested in him. May be its some gesture he is unable to understand. Just to find out like a curious child he starts going to the hospital frequently. He doesn't realise when frequently becomes daily and daily becomes hours together. He doesn't care about his internship, degree, mother, friends, money. All he thinks about is Shuili and her health.
The mere possibility of some love somewhere makes him forget everything. He makes Shuili's getting better the only thought of his mind. He breathes that day in and out; irrespective of where he is. He thoroughly internalises this thought and lives to prove it.
But practically his efforts see no improvement in her health. The only thing he gets is motivating her mother and some more time from her uncle to put off the ventilator. One fine morning he wakes up to see beautiful parijat flowers scattered on the ground, reminding him her love for them.
He wraps them in a paper and takes them to the ICU and spreads them around the bed of beeping monitors. The first sign Shuili shows of recovery is when the smell of her favorite flowers reaches her soul. Thereafter she shows some more slow signs of recovery with eye movements and hand movements.
With her recovery starts a very beautiful love- purest and subtlest- of today's times. Their relationship is entirely private. It has least dialogues but more communication. A love full of meaning, a love worth trying for, worth dying for.
The movie is full of very touching instances when Dan gets a female to the ICU to do Shuili's eyebrows. When Dan returns after few days and falls asleep looking at Shuili whose hair has grown like a boy. Daily Dan bends down to look at Shuili's urine output to see whether its showing some sign of recovery.
All in all a very thought provoking movie in a practical world; which probably teaches to be impractical at times. It superbly signifies the power of internalisation. The strength which Dan gets after Shuili's death changes his very existence. A carefree intern who is kicked out of every department becomes a Sous Chef within a short span- simply because he has learnt to focus.
Just like the magical flowers of parijat have spilled their beauty in the movie frequently, Shoojit Sircar has perfectly and subtly delivered a magical masterpiece that changes our very outlook of life and love.
No comments:
Post a Comment