He reads his own published poem to his wife. She lovingly disapproves of his pen name. A little later they are at a wedding. She smiles at his efforts at dancing. He makes his way quietly behind his wife while posing for a family photo. Much later in the film, after the family has slowly come to terms with an unexpected pregnancy, the sons of the family are lovingly fooling around their Dadi; the husband and wife stand in the kitchen, leaning against each other and quietly taking in all the love and affection being shared…
These are genuinely warm moments from any couple\’s life. The only difference here is that the couple mentioned here are much older; age is just a number when it comes to love but what happens when there is a baby arriving as a result of that love? This film tackles this question from various angles and from different perspectives of all people related to the couple. There are moments shame, embarrassment and denial. There are also moments of truth, confrontation and acceptance. In between all this there are moments of genuine love, warmth and affection…between parents and children; between siblings and between both older and younger couple….
There are a lot of things that work in this film.. The crackling dialogues and meaningful silences in between. A great background score. Screenplay that has mostly laugh-out-loud moments in first half and genuinely moving scenes in the second half. But what really makes this film great are the performances. Gajraj Rao and Neena Gupta as elder couple portray their roles which such tenderness and sensitivity, that they convey so much with very little dialogue. Surekha Sikri as the elderly matriarch on the other hand delivers some of the best lines of the film, with great gusto. Aayushman Khurana and Sanya Malhotra are charming and do a good job.
But the highlight of the film for me was the sensitivity and sincerety with which the director handles such a difficult topic. The scenes involving the older couple especially have genuine tenderness and a sense of authenticity rarely seen in bollywood movies. Would highly recommend this movie, especially for family viewing ( FYI there are absolutely no \”explicit\” scenes if you are planning to take children along…)
