UDAAN (2010)

An absolutely impressive and one of the best Hindi film of the year without any exaggeration. Writer-Director Vikramaditya Motwane and co-writer/Producer Anurag Kashyap deserve hug for gifting one of the brilliant film treading and breaking inhibited territory of routine Hindi cinema. After finishing script, Motwane ran from pillars to post seeking financial support from producers and ended up with Kashyap who told him that he would not only support and help but also finance the film even though it will be claimed flop at box office. It’s hard to say How long Kashyap-Bhardwaj-Benerjee led Indian New Wave Cinema will survive but if they’ll help the other individual voices like Motwane, it will surely see the brighter sun for long.

Somewhere I read that ‘Freedom teaches discipline best with its own permanent way’. Here’s tale of sixteen year old boy yearning for freedom from his imposed life and trapped existence and grow from boyhood to manhood. The film begins with Rohan and his adolescent hostel mates secretly running away from hostel to watch late night C grade flick named 'Kanti Shah ke Angoor’ and get noticed by the warden in cinema hall. Next morning they’re expelled from school. Rohan lands up to industrial town of Jamshedpur, where lives a dominating authoritarian father and a surprising kid brother from his father’s second marriage. His teenage freedom and wish of being a writer are severely butchered at home. Against his will he has to join his father’s family business of small steel factory in the morning and attend afternoon engineering college when his heart lies in poetry. So what’s surprising about that? It’s not story but story telling that did tremendous and convincing justice to its theme which perhaps no director has explored with such aplomb.

Its rare thing to find in Indian cinema where the story was told from point of view of those directionless but memorable personal moments of adolescent age where anyone of us relate ourselves to those golden moments. Bunking the hostel, smoking cigarettes secretly, directionless life, hang out with close buddies and at the same time growing slowly from a boy to man. The whole film was told from point of view of an adolescent age/angle without any unwanted distraction. This is not the first time ever that we see the face of authoritarian frustrated face of middle class father but Ronit Roy brought one of the unique horror face of middle class father and deserves award for his praiseworthy performance. The film has almost all new, unknown cast and believe me all of them are so convincing including that small kid brother. Rajat Barmecha is as revealing and as promising as Shreyas Talpade in ‘Iqbal’ and he surely deserves the best male debut trophy of the year for giving us that unthinkable tight slap with that cruel smile of satisfaction on his face!

There are many moments in the film which balanced the sublime emotional scenes with striking ones. Rohan’s first day of in the steel factory, calling his hostel buddy after a long, throwing his frustrated anger damaging the car. However stealing car key, a cigarette and money from father’s purse to enjoy late night drink in a bar ending with ragging of ‘shit ups’ and sharing drinks with sparkle of intoxicating fun of poetry and prank of ‘Motu master total disaster’ or one where intoxicating father asking some embarrassing questions to his son or forcing him to smoke in front of him seem more from pen of Anurag Kashyap than Motwane.

Highly recommended to all those who avoided it till day.

PS-It's finally a piece of cinema which I would like to recommend to those '3 Idiots' obsessed college kids where their savior 'Rancho' is absent like real life. (The pun is absolutely intended!)

Ratings-9/10