Movie: Super Nani
Director: Indra Kumar
Cast: Rekha, Radhir Kapoor, Sharman Joshi
Genre: Drama
As a part of my job to review movies, I often have empty hall and a bucket of popcorn for company. It’s as sad as it sounds! But occasionally Iam surprised by a small crowd of audience who not only sit through some lousy movies, but also laugh, cry and gasp along with the actors. Super Nani was, much to my astonishment, a similar experience. So here I am in an empty movie hall, nodding at the attendant who recognizes me as the ‘girl-with-no-friends’. Five minutes later, more people trotted in. Families, middle aged couples and children, turning my lonesome presence into a small crowd of 15 people. My neighbour, a middle aged woman, turned to me and said, “Lag raha hai, yeh achhi movie hogi.” I grinned back cheekily. And just like she said, I saw everyone, except me, enjoying the movie like it was just what they had been waiting to watch.
Nani (Rekha) is a pitiable house wife, who is humiliated and disrespected by one and all in the house. Her husband calls her a zero, her son tells her off for irritating him, her bahu screeches at her husband to ‘handle his mother’ and her daughter rebukes her for trespassing into her private life. Then comes her NRI grandson, Mann, (Sharman Joshi) with an obvious firang accent but his dil is Hindustani. He is appalled by the life Nani is forced to live in and tells her if she wants others to change, she needs to change herself. The rest that follows is as obvious as telling you that there are stars in the sky.
If there was an award for the most pathetically predictable storyline, Super Nani would win it hands down. Somewhere I also wondered if this was a movie made for the wrong era. The audience of the 60’s would have (maybe) appreciated a woman centric movie like Super Nani with a well intended theme of woman empowerment. But the 21st century films have moved a furlong away from the voiceless, abused, sobbing woman in the kitchen who thinks her pati is devta. Though this movie is an adaptaion of a Gujrati play by the name Baa Ae Maari Boundary, I doubt director Indra Kumar has followed the original script. After a point it felt like I was watching an adaptation of a melodramatic television saga on the big screen.
Rekha looks as beautiful as she did 30 years back as if stuck in time, well so is her character; Sharman Joshi looks like a fool with his imperfect English, on and off laced with an accent; his lady love, newbie Shweta Kumar, is a blink and miss; Randhir kapoor as the husband is sadly repetitive with his ‘tumharai jagah kitchen main hai’ type dialogues. There were parts that came close to being funny but failed in its overall impact. I hate admitting this, some dialogues did squeeze tears out of me, but then I cried watching ‘Shark tales’ too, so you do the math!
Super Nani, though well intended, is a forgettable movie. This is a stay-at-home weekend folks!
My verdict: *
