#October : “ Kuch Jyada hi affected nei ho raha he tu ?” asks Dan’s colleague , “tum log itne unaffected kaise ho” replies Dan . “Practical hona padta
he” she responds and Dan walks away. But Dan’s question haunts you during the
entire length of the movie , post you walk out of the theatre , when you wake
up in the morning , till you allow “ practicality” to take control over your
sensitivity , till sales number or that god damn power point takes precedence
over basic human feelings . The line
between machines and human beings are getting blurred by the day. They say
machines will replace humans, I m more worried about the dying human emotions,
the machines in the guise of humans around us, the pretentiousness of all of it.
Back to Dan. A man with an
“understudy” tag whom no one ever seems to care about. A man who goes the distance for a girl he
never dated or had any relationship with, just because the girl had asked about
him before the fatal fall. A man who just couldn’t move on like many of us. He was overwhelmed by the tragedy and yet
buoyed by optimism. The transformation is remarkable. He may come across as a fool to you and me,
but remember “fools rush in where angels fear to tread”
October is a paean on a
human being’s infinite capability to love , his ability to be sensitive towards
his surrounding, to share the feelings beneath those unspoken words, a rare
quality in an age where we are trained to “mourn and move on” within minutes. The
narrative is unhurried. It lets you go through the excruciating pain of waiting
for the recovery of a loved one whose life is hanging by a thread. It oscillates
between hope and despair. It lets you experience love and loss. It uses the metaphor of Sheuli flower that blooms
under moonlight, spreads its fragrance during the night and then falls on the ground
by early morning, to depict the transitory nature of life.
Juhi Chaturvedi had always
been a master screen play writer but with October she takes a giant leap. The
subtlety in the writing that explores the sadness in the theme is remarkable. The
screen play injects right amount of light humour to break away from the heavy
atmospheric. Soojit Sircar masterfully handles every theme, every character,
and every emotion in the film. But it is Avik Mukhopadhyay’s exquisite camera
work that breathes life into October. His camera captures the contrast of
hospital and hotel, of winter and rain, of sunshine and mist, of hope and despair
, of holding on and moving away. Varun Dhawan
strips away every mannerism of a typical hindi film hero to portray the
layered vulnerability of Dan. This is a performance he will be proud of for a long
time.
October is cathartic in every sense of the word. It is
not just a story of Dan; it’s a story of yours and mine, it’s a story of life
and awakening, it’s a story of love.
“The Soul is always conscious” says the neurologist in the film .The
question is do we still listen to the soul or have we bargained it for the
banal pleasures or as we so often pretend to say for ‘practicality”.
October is poetic. It’s a lingering
feeling that will stay with you long after you have left the auditorium. But
watch it only if you have your heart in the right place, a heart that responds
to pain and joy or a heart ready to
transform. Else you may get tickled like those five Gurugram girls who sat a
row behind mine and continued to giggle even through death scenes, assuming
they own the theater!
To Autumn, to love and Loss , to the
season of mists and mellow fruitfulness , to cinema .
Thank God, they still make such films.
