A mother of a young boy goes into comma before the Berlin wall collapses and then regains consciousness months later, post the historic German reunification. But the problem begins when the doctor says that she will not be able to bear any sudden shock or change in her lifestyle. Therefore, the son decides to recreate the same kind of nostalgic settings in his house as they were before the fall of Berlin wall with the help of his friends.
The above description is of the German movie GOOD BYE LENIN (2003) which remains the main inspiration behind the basic premise of this Friday’s DOORDARSHAN written and directed by Gagan Puri.
The time period of the mother remaining in comma is increased to 30 years from a few months going back to the late 80s and the nostalgia related with a past is represented by the only TV channel in those times of Doordarshan.
Regaining consciousness after three decades, the mother wishes to see the famous Doordarshan programs along with her son whom she assumes to be a school going kid. And the grown-up son (who is now a father) tries to arrange everything similar to the gone era with the help of his young son, daughter and wife. His school time friend and family also contribute in this noble act, but they all together actually create a crazy mess of everything unintentionally.
Sadly, the idea that sounds exciting on paper, largely falls flat on the screen due to unnecessary stretching, poor writing and execution wasting a potential cast. An interesting ensemble of veteran actors like Manu Rishi Chadha, Mahie Gill, Dolly Ahuluwalia and Rajesh Sharma, along with youngsters as Aditya Kumar, Sumit Gulati, Shardul Rana and Mehak Manwani try hard but they more or less remain caught in the trap of overdoing it hampering the required simplicity. As a result, almost everyone remains loud throughout the film except Manu and Mahie Gill.
Moreover, the on-location production values remain average to tacky and the recreation of the past decades is unconvincing and hurried which was supposed to be the main twist of the plot. Plus, Dolly Ahluwalia yet again tries to exploit the repetitive Delhi-Punjabi family touch, which never appeals right from her first sequence.
In all, with the reference of Doordarshan being nostalgic for a big proportion of our population, this is clearly an opportunity missed, which probably could have been a perfect plot for a short web-series presenting it differently. In the present form, this Doordarshan can only be seen on the online portal once because of its interesting plot, but visiting a theatre for this misfire is not recommended.
Rating : 2 / 5
Tags :
Doordarshan Review by Bobby Sing at bobbytalkscinema.com, New Hindi Films Reviews by Bobby Sing, New Bollywood Movies Reviews by Bobby Sing, Hindi inspired films, Hindi films inspired from German films.
