Filhaal Review

Now that Tabu's found her Astitiva and Sush Sen's maternal instincts have been trumpeted about town, the duo find their talents fully exploited by debutante director Meghna Gulzar. The director puts up a bravura performance and succeeds in making the turtle finally getting its duo by making it realize its supersonic speed. Don't get my drift?

Well, Filhaal may be full of sensible acting and great sensitivity, but is also a 100 hour test of endurance for us moviegoers, as it drags on totally inconsiderate of the masses' waning patience. Give us a break buddy, we still haven't recovered from Raaz! Oh well, if it is any consolation, the story manages to hold our attention (or the lack of it).

Newly rechristened 'Gush' Sen jumped the gun with her extra informative 1 million MTV specials on Filhaal. If you haven't already seen one of those shows and are actually the only lone ranger on planet earth with no clue about the story, lemme shine a torch in your direction.

Sia (Sen) and Reva (Tabu) are bum chums whose entry is a spectacular (?) jousting scene with Sen managing to poke her blade into Tabu, thereby spilling her guts in a meager manner. Give it a rest Meghna, you don't have to prove your originality by making our imagination SNAP!

Anyway, these guys are thick as thieves; the sort of friends who eat from the same bowl and wear dog-tags with their names on them (in case they should get driven into the sidewalk by obstinate buffaloes in the middle of the road, and hence lose their sense of identity).

Straight out of centerspread Cosmo, Sen plays a photographer with a mind firmly set on her career. When Tabu gets married to Dhruv (Sanjay Suri) and their efforts to signal in the stork and have a kid run to waste, Sen comes to the rescue. Seeing her pal Tabu's face in ruins, she decides to go ahead and act as the surrogate for the couples' embryo.

Easier said than done, Sen doesn't have it as easy as Phoebe - and has to constantly stave off Tabu's feelings of insecurity and jealousy, all the while dealing with her own sudden urges to hog aloo tikkas and cheese sandwiches. The friendship takes a dip, and so does Sen's love life, as her harried suitor Palash Sen decides to disappear into the woodwork a bit.

What happens is cute and quite interesting - if only the movie had been chopped and diced into equal cubes and served to us over a period of 9 months, we would have been fully able to appreciate the director's deft handling of the sensitive script. But it's a dramatic alas for her, and for us, this one big huge serving is a bit too much to take. It grates on our nerves as the pace is sloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow!

Meghna seemed to have been able to pull off some great performances from the cast, and well, so far so good. But what's with those songs? I still can't fathom why Anu Malik has to make it a point to puncture eardrums each time he feels overwhelmed by his Dr. Hyde-esque creative side. Gulzar's lyrics are a letdown, too. Shucks, he could have penned some heavier stuff than those potty inspirations of his.

Well, Meghna seems to have made her mark, at least Filhaal ke liye!