A boy struggling to overcome childhood trauma. A young man learning to find his place. And that thing between fathers and sons. ‘Zubaan’ is about all of these things, and a mixed bag of a movie: some of it comes together really well; others strands are all over the place.
The journey of small-town boy Dilsher( Vicky Kaushal) to the world of super-wealthy builder Gurcharan Sikand( Chaudhary) is pockmarked by stealthy ambition: the most interesting aspect of Dilsher’s character is that he is capable of the unspeakable to achieve what he wants, and yet his moral compass isn’t completely broken.
A self-made man, who goes from being a ‘delivery boy’ to the owner of a multi-billion empire, this has to be the most complex role essayed by Chaudhari. He is a husband and father, and yet his family gives him no joy. The wife( Malik) and son( Chanana) are lost souls, looking for a way to connect to the walled-in man they live with.
The strongest portion is Dilsher’s boyhood, in which his ‘shabad’ singer father fills his life with sweet melody. And then the music dies, and Dilsher is left stranded, his ‘zubaan’ shackled. We know right from the start that he will find his voice, but his path– from the smiling boy in a ‘patka’ who loves music to the young man dealing with his demons—is inconsistent.