I am unable to understand why Naseeruddin Shah chose to name his film the way he did. The title asks you to imagine “What if?” But none of the stories really has a pivot point, a situation where the protagonist is at a crossroads and faces a true dilemma. Instead, what you get is an inevitable push towards one outcome, the protagonist having no real option in determining the path to be taken.
The technique of different characters and disparate stories merging at the end against the background of a single event has been used before. So most viewers who watch a movie for more than the stars and the songs will recognize this screenplay device. The charm of this movie is in the stellar acting by most of the cast. The stories are about longing, lust, dreams, and despair. They are told simply and the director does well to avoid complicating the screenplay.
However, I was drawn in and engrossed in only two of those stories—one about a married couple and the other of former lovers. I think it was because of the performances by the actors involved. In the first, Konkona Sen Sharma and Jimmy Sheirgil (yeah that’s the way he spells it now) are superb----their characters’ foreplay (or is that afterplay given that the film opens with the two waking up the day after the night of their marriage?) and obvious delight in each other’s company provides the emotional pull that holds the movie together. You sympathize with both of them all through the movie, and their fate is what provides the wringer during the climax (oops!) of the movie. Konkona has made a habit of giving her roles everything, and Jimmy surely deserves better roles than some of the ’hamstars’ who inhabit the film industry.
In the other story, Paresh Rawal as the much-travelled, hard-headed show promoter and producer is so natural that I suspect the role was written with him in mind. What an actor, nothing seems beyond him! They say a man can never get over a broken relationship and always wishes the woman will return, but a woman can get over the break much quicker and is much more pragmatic. Well, Paresh’s character’s story is one such, and Ratna Pathak Shah opposite him is a perfect piece of casting. But the story holds no great surprises and only the climax of the movie provides it the emotional wrench. Never mind. The actors compensate wonderfully.
Among the other actors, Imaduddin, Naseer’s son, puts in a natural, relaxed performance, although his character seemed unreal to me. Maybe I haven’t met someone like that yet. Ayesha Takia is impressive in more ways than one :-D. The central character in that story is a student who seems to be very reluctant to head for the US for studies despite his friend’s bad-mouthing of India and glamorizing of the US. Sadly, his story is not dealt with differently from the way such stories have been handled previously. Again, that true dilemma, the “What if” never seems to occur.
Irrfan Khan’s made a good career out of his tortured look and edgy persona, but the story he is involved in just doesn’t have meat in it. His character didn’t evoke much emotion in me; neither did Suhasini Mulay’s character. Their mutual pining had a superficial feel to it, and as a viewer I was indifferent to their fate.
Like I said before, the movie falters in not creating the kind of dilemmas that could have made it a sleeper hit. Naseer’s control as a director doesn’t seem consistent; he allows some peripheral characters to ham away or create too much noise while giving others, Ravi Baswani among them, too little screen time or scenes to show their talent. Boman Irani has now managed to typecast himself as a loud, hassled character—this is at least his third such role since Munnabhai MBBS. Overall, there are too many peripheral characters. The cinematography is nothing special, but the editing saves many scenes. I also thought the sound design was poor, but it may have been the acoustics in the theater I saw it in (Gossip in Bandra West). And the poor choice of title sticks in your mind. What if…
If you missed it in the theaters near you, I suggest you rent a DVD or wait until one of the movie channels shows it--it’s worth watching once.