There were two key reasons why I was eager to see this film after watching its promo with a difference. One was its promising story idea that had enough scope for the director to play with his two lead characters in an enlightening manner. And two, its interesting cast featuring the calm Parambrata Chatterjee (Kahaani) playing a sensible young man & the hot Paoli Dam (The Hate Story) playing an outspoken prostitute turned social worker meeting Parambrata in a train journey.
However it was really disheartening to witness the film turning out to be nothing but a collage of many hamming sequences playing everything over the top unnecessarily, post the opening fresh moments talking about the novel ‘Twin Souls’ instead of the usual ‘Soul-mates’. In fact it was really hard to accept that the director Subhash Sehgal was not able to see Paoli as a complete misfit in her character of a loud, abusive sex-worker, repeatedly touching the heights of being unconvincing and unbearable together. As a result, where Parambrata is just okay in his given role along with Vidya Maldave, Paoli actually hits a new low playing to the galleries in a highly cheap & undesirable manner not suiting his otherwise sensuous onscreen persona at all.
The poor screenplay, unable to express the required emotions becomes the major drawback of the film having a potential plot and the deliberately added fake mannerisms remain its most annoying feature throughout. Besides it’s the overstretching that leads to a big boredom post intermission reminding you of Shah Rukh’s OH DARLING YEH HAI INDIA too at times along with some pretty badly directed scenes such as the one with the TT saying ‘Kaash Maine Bhi Mohabbat Ki Hoti”….!
Missing the much required chemistry between its lead couple, YAARA SILLY SILLY has a below average soundtrack with only “Yeh Hai Hamare Darmiyan” sounding better. Moreover the film suffers seriously due to its various departments trying to present the theme in their own contradicting manner quite weirdly. For instance, where the director seems to be interested in making a thought provoking film with subtle touches of morality and emotions felt by the two protagonists, his writers (dialogues) are busy making it sound like a typical ‘C’ grade film with many raunchy lines & abuses, the costume designer is so keen in converting it into a soft erotica with all those tasteless dresses and the cinematographer is constantly looking for all the wrong angles enjoying the woman’s body resulting in an utterly silly mess.
Nevertheless finding the only silver lining in the dark clouds, the film gave me the idea of another hard hitting story written on the similar lines, which would have been far more realistic, brutal and impactful in terms of conclusion, depicting the harsh reality of a man-woman relationship revolving only around ‘Sex’ (shared post the review).
So you can easily give it a skip, even when the film is being aired on a TV channel asking for your valuable two hours just for nothing.
Rating : 1 / 5 (and that too just for the appreciable story-idea with some great potential to explore.)
For friends interested to read ‘My version of the story-line’ inspired from the one seen in the film………..here it is awaiting your valuable views as comments.
(NOTE : Spoilers & Mature Content Ahead)
Title : WOH EK RAAT
A young businessman (in his late 30s) catches an overnight train and as he gets onto the compartment, meets a lady (in her early 40s) who is presently a social activist running an NGO fighting for the rights of innocent rape-victims.
They both actually know each other since long because of a strange meeting held a decade back and the young man requests the lady to accompany him for the rest of the travel for the old-time sake, to which she agrees readily.
As they begin some introspective talks in the early hours of the night in their cozy train-coupe, we move into the flashback where it’s revealed that the lady was earlier working as a prostitute a decade back and the businessman, who was a young boy then, visited the brothel one night along with his two friends in order to give away his virginity.
The night turned out to be a quite happening one for both as the boy was not able to shed off his fears and decided not to touch the lady at all despite paying a good sum of ‘Five Thousand rupees’ for the act. Instead he took her for a ride in the calmness of the night making her feel the freedom after a long time with the permission of the big fat lady-owner of the brothel. Living those memorable hours without even a kiss or sex as desired, they enjoyed a warm relationship formed unexpectedly. As a result, the night got stuck in their memories as a novel experience and they immediately recalled it again seeing each other after a gap of even ten years.
Coming back to the present, as the man insists, the lady tells him all about how she managed to come out of that ugly flesh business and started working for the exploited rape victims running her own NGO. The man is amazed listening to her great story and to live those enjoyable moments again wishes to play the game of ‘Ludo’ with her…….. exactly as they both did in that single night on the bed …….many years back.
He gets off the train at the next station and starts searching for the ‘Ludo Game’, which he manages to find in the first shop itself. But strangely keeps searching for something else too not easily available in the shops around. In search of that undisclosed thing, he goes platform to platform risking the chance of missing the train and thankfully finds it at a small shop situated below the big staircase at last. The train starts moving slowly and the lady becomes worried for the man not yet visible around. Looking for him she comes at the door and has a sigh of relief finding him running towards the train holding something in hand and then somehow able to catch it too making a desperate effort.
Smiling together, they again enter the coupe and start playing the game……. like two innocent kids lost in their own world. But after a while the lady finds something fishy in the eyes of the man, whom she knew only ‘by the one night’ they had spent together long back. Something, that was not right running in his mind, making the lady conscious and worried together sensing an awkward change.
In reality, the two people in the coupe are not the same anymore after a decade or so. The lady is now even more beautiful, looking ravishing in her new persona of a social worker wearing a decently covered sari and an immensely likable make-up. And the man is no longer any young shy boy willing to get away with his virginity worrying about the ‘performance levels’. In fact the man is now thinking something else………..!
He is actually now thinking about getting the return of those ‘Five Thousand rupees’ payment made a decade back without anything in exchange as per the deal made. He is now interested in enjoying her body for the night making the most of the opportunity available as a pure businessman.
Being the one with ‘loads of experience’………she gets to know about the intension just through his eyes only. And the moment she asks him bluntly expecting a negative reply ……..the lady gets stunned to know that she was damn right and the man had all evil on his mind at this moment and nothing else.
Unfortunately she has no help to call for in that late hour of the night, no way to get out of the coupe locked from the inside and he is not the same shy-boy standing in front of her .......whom she had made fun of in the past…… for not being able to perform the manly act.
Consequently, she fights ……….. but has to give up…………… gets raped…………. raped by the man, the only man whom she probably had loved for a few hours ……..a decade back.
The memories of a pleasant night with a young boy turn into a cruel one after so many years with the same man.
But for some unknown reason, the lady still decides to keep quiet simply looking into those red eyes full of lust. The only eyes she had loved once while talking freely, holding each other’s hand walking through the lonely roads for a few hours.
In the morning, the businessman calmly collects his things and leaves the coupe without saying a single word. But he doesn’t forget to leave the same payment of ‘Five Thousand rupees’ on the seat as earlier, may be as a generous tip for the act. The lady looks at the money left, doesn’t look at it again and gets off the train without any kind of expression on her face.
They both walk away from each other without saying anything at all and the notes are found by a sweeper, who silently keeps them in his pocket instead of declaring it to the authorities.
The film ends on their parting shot on an open note, leaving the viewers having their own conclusions in mind about the two characters on screen. But while walking away from the camera, where the woman keeps moving slowly with all moist eyes, the man walks away briskly like nothing happened at all…….throwing something into the dustbin hiding it from the fellow travellers.
It was a pack of male-contraceptives (condoms). And this was what he was searching all over the shops when he got off at a station to buy the game of ‘Ludo’!!!!!!
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That’s my version of the story written in all honesty and I would like to mention one name, the maestro who remained the real source of inspiration behind this helpless yet strong perspective of a loving, forgiving woman …………who is none other than…………the one and only Saadat Hassan MANTO.
Salaam Ustad with HIS BLESSINGS
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