Gist: Rekha’s’Super Nani’ which released today revolves around a female protagonist who is neglected, ridiculed and chided by her family members.
Super Nani, an adaptation of the Gujarati play(Baa Ae Maari Boundary by Imtiaz Patel), packs in all that was annoying in the worst Bollywood melodramas of the 70s. A dynamic thought on women’s empowerment is conferred in the most regressive movie plot in Super Nani.
Plot: Bharti Bhatia(Rekha), a Patna born lady in her sixties is a selfless grandma who is treated as a kitchen mop by her selfish family members until Mann Mehra(Sharman Joshi), Bharti’s grandson arrives from America to put Bharti back on a high podium.
Bharti’s family included her rude husband R.K. Bhatia(Randhir Kapoor), son Suketu(Rajesh Kumar), daughter Gargee(Anchal Dwivedi), daughter-in-law(Shreya Narayan).
Rekha is a helpless mother who simply accepts every boorish gesture of her family members, everytime consoling herself by saying ‘This too shall pass’. However, in reality she is constantly craving for her husband’s attention while he is completely swept away by his secretary’s beauty with brains. So, the entire first half Rekha is seen dressed in light shades saree, grey hair strands and dark circles always talking to her God(Kanha) about her problems in life.
This story is not acceptable anymore because it has been played on Indian cinema for more than 50years now.
I understand that Indra Kumar wanted to portray the plight of a hardworking woman who is taken for granted but the humiliation that Bharti has gone through the movie becomes a torture on the minds of the people.
As expected in the second half, the grandson makes a grand surprise entry who transforms his old nani into superhot nani. This is Rekha’s avatar that you will want to watch her in.
The transition from ‘Nani’ to ‘Super Nani’ is a flash affair, meaning within minutes we have our diva ready. And she is all praises for her new look. Mann takes her to a new level she had never been to. She bumps into Bamboo(Anupam Kher), an ad agency head, who is also her schoolmate and ends up with a modelling assignment at her doorstep. The decision to go with the flow proves to be a life changing move. Soon, she becomes the talk to town. Her family, however, still does not accept her power, money and authority. They need a severe punch to believe the fact that the person whom they humiliated every now and then, had outdone everyone.
Rekha becomes a strong heart woman who seeks revenge for all the ill-treatment she had suffered in her past and makes her family beg for mercy. But from within, real happiness for her still was in touching her husband’s feet, cooking for her offsprings and saving her daughter from a troubled live-in relationship.
Quite a few facts in the movie need to be accepted blindly because there’s no reason behind it. There’s no dogma as to why her husband hated her so much.
One more disadvantage is that the movie is too loud, competing purely on high decibel levels.
I read somewhere director Indra Kumar is relaunching his daughter Shweta Kumar with this movie. However, she is a complete bizzare in the movie and there’s nothing much she has done that I can write about. Even Sharman Joshi, whom I love to watch otherwise, has been disappointing. He has a very different accent as he is just returned from US, but this weird accent is indeed irritating rather than funny.
The one and only reason why I went for this movie was Rekha. And after the movie, the only thing I could wonder was ‘why the hell did she agree to this film?’ It is nowhere near to what she has offered the audience in the past. A precious talent was wasted.
But ya, you cannot deny the fact that come-what-may Rekha looks gorgeous as the leading lady in beautiful sarees and red lips.
Final Word: The climax will surely create some sympathy in support of women empowerment. However, moral derived from the film is that you should love and respect your mother.
This film is a complete waste of time. Not recommended.