Sui Dhaaga

“Sab barriya hai” [Everything is great]. To Mauji (Varun Dhawan), these are the words he clings to for solace when things go from bad to worse. Mauji is a poor man’s son who is habitually put down by his soon-to-retire dad (Raghubir Yadav). At work, his boss’s son, an inconsiderate, bad-tempered brat, forces him to act like a cute little dog whenever business is slow. His salary — a whopping 6,000 rupees — hardly helps the family get by, so what’s a guy to do except say to himself: “Sub barriya hai!”

When he is forced to howl and whimper at his boss’ son’s wedding reception, Mauji’s wife Mamta (Anushka Sharma) can’t take it anymore. She insists that he leave his job to start his own tailoring shop. And so begins a harrowing, deeply-rooted, immensely satisfying tale of struggle and hardship.

Sui Dhaaga is not an arthouse film but it is a perfect representation of indie cinema. This is a commercial motion picture, far removed from solemn music-less moments of pondering, conversational confrontations or other “arty” shenanigans.

Screenwriter-director Sharat Kataria’s last picture, Dum Laga Ke Haisha — which made Bhumi Pednekar a star and won a Filmfare and National awards — was a similar beast; a small, instantly connectable tale of human woes and unconventional romance.

Mamta and Mauji are far from typical Bollywood-prone couples who spring into song sequences. Real life people don’t do that (at least, I’m reasonably sure they don’t). In the first few scenes of the film, Mauji explains that circumstances didn’t give them much — if any — time together to get to really know each other.

Kataria gives them that opportunity in sublime moments as they struggle to make life happen — and even then there’s nothing Bollywood-ish about them. Their romance blooms, in a sense, when they are walking together on the streets or when she brings him lunch at work, or when they catch a bus together. Somehow the tone of these scenes takes me back to Kamal Hassan’s early films such as Sadm and Pushpak.

Sharma is excellent in a tastefully defined role of a meek woman who wants to support her man. Dhawan, however, has matured beyond expectations with Sui Dhaaga and October.

The two actors’ talent and appeal, and Kataria’s excellent command of the narrative, makes little work of indigestible moments in the third act where the film introduces a big showbiz-y finale at an awards show. That bit is a minor grievance that tries to suck the air out of an otherwise excellent film.

Sui Dhaaga is an instantly connectable tale of human woes and unconventional romance while Pataakha is a sly take on Indo-Pak friction

Pataakha

Vishal Bhardwaj’s Pataakha is a literal firecracker — a lively, vibrant tale of two near-savage sisters who want to scratch each other’s eyes out.

Genda and Champa — lovingly called Chhutki and Barrki (Sanya Malhotra, Radhika Madan) — are constantly yelling and screaming at each other, looking at opportunities to start a skirmish. Their mutual hatred makes their world go round.

There isn’t much to Bhardwaj’s story other than the premise (by the way, the film is an adaptation of Charan Singh Pathik’s short story Do Behnein). Bhardwaj’s screenplay, on the other hand, is an entirely different story.

Working with a limited set of characters — Vijay Raaz plays the girl’s poor, old bechara [hapless] father (Bechara Bapu is his name in the credits), Namik Das and Abhishek Duhan are their love interests — Bhardwaj fleshes a string of sequences that do not lead anywhere, unless one looks at the big picture.

Almost every character, including the girls’, has limited potential and motivations and this structural impediment gives Bhardwaj the opening to add an impish character called Dipper (Sunil Grover, exceptional). Dipper doesn’t have a backstory or a reason; he just likes to pit the girls against each other for his own pleasure. In essence, Dipper is the film’s actual pataakha [firecracker], spicing up the narrative with twists when the story runs out of things to do.

Pataakha is smart entertainment, but at times Bhardwaj gets carried away with the film’s underlying theme. To the director, Chhutki and Barrki are parallels of India and Pakistan (the reason why the film was stuck at the local censors for nearly a day). Chhutki and Barrki’s battles are worthless and damaging — but only for each other. For everyone else (such as Dipper, for instance), they’re a fun diversion from daily boredom.

Open parallels and weird characters such as these take me back to Matru Ki Bijli Ka Mandola — one of Bhardwaj’s lesser known works. Unlike Matru, Pataakha is more to-the-point. However, the director’s over-indulgence of in-your-face context takes some of the fun out of the enterprise. By the tenth Indo-Pak reference one is inclined to yell: “Yes, we got it the first time round!”

Other than that, Pataakha is a kinetically made, thoroughly enjoyable diversion.

Published in Dawn, ICON, October 7th, 2018