Movie Review-Yeh Saali Zindagi

Sudhir Mishra is not your usual run of the mill director and neither are his movies. If nothing else they do have a different flavour. They might not have the repeat watch values which used to define a hit but in any case in the age of multiplexes it’s a redundant concept. So herein is the paradox. You may not want to watch them again but his movies have a tendency to grow on you. The more you think about them the more you may like them. Having said that I do not consider ‘Yeh Saali Zindagi’ a worthy successor to ‘Khoya Khoya Chand’ but like I said it’s a completely different flavour.
From the romantic, chivalrous, moony eyed 50’s Bollywood Bombay, Mishra has shifted his canvas to the cussing, foul mouthed, criminalised, dog eat dog labyrinths of Delhi. And amidst all the uninhibited abuses of which there is a surfeit (I could see some red ears in the dark) there is an unrequited love which promises to bloom into a romance. But wait a minute, that’s not just the main plot. There is a romantic hero and a swinging heroine but the heroine is involved with a guy who is engaged to another chic who is the daughter of a corrupt politician who is the estranged master of an imprisoned gangster who engages a fellow inmate to avenge himself and kidnap the politician’s daughter and the guy involved with the swinging heroine but the fellow inmate (let’s call him the side hero) mistakenly kidnaps the swinging heroine which is witnessed by the romantic hero who decides to intervene and save his unrequited love. Whew! And that’s not all. In the sub plot this side hero who loves the easy money and thrills that the life of crime gives him is insecure about his pretty wife. So in between the killings and kidnapping and gangsta whirl he tries to find time to kiss and make up with her and probably in a convoluted display of affection gets slapped hard repeatedly. Sigh, so much for the macho gangsters of Delhi.

Powered by: Chakpak.com	Yeh Saali Zindagi

The movie has a racy narration. In fact it is so rapid that at times both the director and the audience lose track of what’s going on. It’s a situational thriller masquerading as a romance. There are the old fashioned flashbacks and then flashbacks from those flashbacks. It’s just after the interval than you will be able to put together the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle and may be enjoy it too. I think most of the charm (if one call it that) for the audience was in the earthy dialogues. The debate on the use of profanities apart, the audience seemed to be quite thrilled on the prolific usage of the nouns and adjectives of the words describing the nether parts of human anatomy in chaste vernacular. There was this lady sitting in front of me with a child in her lap who would throw up her arms in animated applause and shout “So cooool” every time one of the onscreen goons let loose one. I am not sitting in judgement here but it got me thinking if the audience tastes are finally changing and there is after all an acceptance of the cinematic licence to show the perceived reality. However in the department of profanity this flick wins hands down. The likes of Omkara, Peepli Live and No One Killed Jessica seem like soap water compared to this heady brew.
It’s unfair to judge the movie on only one aspect, howsoever all pervasive it may seem, so I will leave it at that. Make up your own mind. Chances are if you are a Delhite or from thereabouts you might love it. Those who mind their Ps and Qs need not waste their time. And those who enjoy their language mixed with the colourful hues of the Haryana heartland are in for a rocking time.