Given that Naseeruddin Shah is such a fine actor, and has directed awesome plays over the many years of his chequered career, Yun Hota to Kya Hota, his directorial debut understandably suffered from the weight of over-expectation.
Spoiler warning (doesn’t matter though)
The film was advertised as a film about “people with distinct hopes and motives who are brought together by fate to be a part in one of the most terrible events of recent times”. This, although a major flaw, doesn’t matter much in the end really. The main poster of the movie shows all members of the cast standing together against the Manhattan skyline with the erstwhile WTC twin towers. The film tells four converging stories. The first is of newly married couple Konkona and Jimmy Shergill, who are briefly separated because the guy has a job in California and has to travel abroad, while Konkona stays at home and is traumatized an driven crazy by her mother-in-law, who seriously requires some acting lessons. The second story is that of Paresh Rawal, who is a small-time organizer of shows and dance-parties, and does a business of taking money from girls to take them to the US for a ‘supposedly’ better future. The third story is of an intelligent but poor student, who is not enamored with US but goes there nevertheless, probably driven to helplessness by the death of his long-suffering father. The final story is of crooked stockbroker who is in love with a woman at least twice his age, and is falsely implicated in a murder and hence has to flee to the US. All of these events converge together to finally end in the inevitable crash of the plane carrying two protagonists into the twin-towers, while one of them is waiting for a call in an ubiquitous room on the ninety-fifth floor of the WTC tower I, watching impending death.
For the most part, this is a substantially well-made movie, for a debutant director. Some of situations are really well-shot and with a lot of subtlety and humanity. Especially those of Konkona’s desire to leave the country and the desperate phone calls she makes to her somewhat aloof husband. Konkona moulds well into her character, showing her emotional turmoil in being embroiled between a schizophrenic sister-in-law and a crazy mother-in-law. When she finally does manage to get the VISA, albeit by lying profusely to the VISA officer in a manner which leaves nothing to the imagination, and hiding her motives from the crazy mother-in-law, one does heave a sigh of relief. Paresh Rawal delivers a masterful performance, very much removed from the Hera Pheri character, and impresses with his beautifully sensitive portrayal of a money-minded but inherently human individual. The love affair between Paresh and Ratna Pathak is shown with a rather refreshing perspective and is well-told. The interactions between Konkona and Paresh as shown by various conversations in the airports are pleasant to watch, as is Konkona’s anxiety and sheer helplessness when she realizes that she has ‘lost’ her boarding pass.
However, in spite of the converging stories, and a good script in parts, the film fails to deliver up to its expectations. The reasons for this are manifold. The Irfan Khan – Suhasini Mulay affair seems totally forced and does not contribute in any way to the story, and definitely dilutes the overall impact of the movie. The crazy mother-in-law could have been played better and with a little more subtlety. For the most part, the lady seems incapable of acting and mostly delivers an out-of-sorts performance. Naseer has cast his own son in the movie, with the primary objective of finding fault with the USA, and talking in chaste Hindi, but unfortunately, the role does not give him much of a chance to really act. The direction, though good in most parts, switches erratically between subtle realism and commercial sentimentality and that’s never good to watch.
However, that is not my main problem with the film. Naseer’s thought behind the movie is great – commenting on the inevitable quirks of destiny which cause people to come together, and sometimes in not altogether happy endings. But 9/11 is a weather-beaten topic, and there are several movies which deal with it on various levels – urban legends, conspiracy theories, et al. in the wake of such a plethora of movies on the topic, I guess it required a refreshing new perspective, something which the view of a plane from a room on the ninety-fifth floor did not give me. The way the film in stylized in the final few moments, rather final few scenes, makes you cringe a little bit. The exploitative nature of the narrative in the climactic scenes is not pleasant to watch. I would have enjoyed the movie so much more if it had ended subtly and gracefully, instead of showing the full impact of the tragedy on the lives of each and every person related to it. There are some things which the user will understand and figure out even if it is not shown explicitly. The reactions of people who have lost their loved ones, is a tried-and-tested feature in Bollywood, mostly to evoke sentiment and grief, but doesn’t contribute much in making you empathize with the tragedy. And the final title – Dedicated to all those who died on the terrible day – sounds so very clichéd. He could have left it out.
All in all, a could-have-been-good film which was probably diluted by the weight of expectations, and an erratic directorial style.