Thursday, October 15, 2009

Wake up Sid: Slice of Life Romance.


BOY GROWS UP, UNDERSTANDS LIFE, WORK, GOALS, FRIENDS, RELATIONSHIPS AND LOVE!

Cast : Ranbir Kapoor, Konkona Sen Sharma, Anupam Kher, Supriya Pathak ,Rahul Khanna,Shikha Talsania, Namit Das,Kasmira shah
Director : Ayan Mukerji
Story and screenplay: Ayan Mukerji
Editor: Shan Mohammed
Producer: Karan Johar
Music: Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsan Noorani, Loy mendonca
Lyricist:Javed Akhtar
Costume design: Manish Malhotra and Priyanjali Lahiri
Official website: http://www.wakeupsidthefilm.com/index.html
Audience: Viewable by all ages. Primary audience -young adults
Rating: *** ½ ( 3 1/2 out of 5)

Review: Birjis Adeni Rashed

Sid: A childish, carefree, college kid
Dress: Wears cartoon comics socks, cartoon graphic t-shirts and sleeps in spongebob bedding
Fetish: For cars, photographing feet and monsoon rains in Mumbai!
Personality trait: Lives in the present and sees no tomorrow.

Aisha: Mature, independent, level- headed, focused & motivated.
Dress: Jeans and Kurtis
Passion: To do something in life! “Adventure not like a vacation, like life”
Personality trait: Creative, organized, meticulous, writer, enjoys freedom.
Her idea of perfect man: mature, independent, goal oriented, rational, and balanced person, ‘a man not a boy’.

Situation: Reality check, Privileges snatched, up close understanding of life.
One line description: Education of life!

When a rich, lazy and happy-go-lucky Sid is pushed to stand on his feet, he is bewildered and confused. He counts on his mature friend Aisha to be his coach, guide, friend and role model. In this education of life, the divergent personalities who seek different things in life, and don’t want to have more than a platonic relationship or more than being friends; develop a special bonding, caring tenderness, affection and love.


The romance is not mushy, but very slice of life; the pair is not conventional but has good chemistry. The story is very simple and nothing new but handled with finesse, realism and depth in characterization. The direction is excellent and simply precise. The director Ayan mukerjee, like Farhan Akhtar’s “Dil Chahta Hai” recreates a movie of relationships, friends, depth in characters, tender spontaneous moments, simple situations with changing dynamics of life. The realistic perspectives with low melodrama make the audience relate to the movie.

The negative point could only be that the story makes life look easy for the protagonists with not much hassles and hurdles to succeed in the metropolitan city of Mumbai! Well, one can disregard some details; after all it’s a movie!

Ranbir kapoor and Konkana Sen Sharma give admirable performances. Ranbir personifying the character of Sid to the ‘T’ was perfect for the role. Konkona is a natural actor and did a good job as usual. The performances of new faces like Shikha Talsania and Namit Das was again outstanding. Seasoned actors like Supriya pathak and Anupam kher had good performances. The music is pleasant and lyrics well written. The songs are montaged on scenes instead of the typical bollywood song dance, again giving it more lifelike feel. An excellent Karan Johar production.

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