Movie Review

Rating :

Verdict : Must Watch

At a time when you are caught up by various masala flicks in Bollywood, ‘Waiting’ is loaded with thoughtful feelings. Featuring Kalki Koechlin, Naseeruddin Shah, Suhasini Maniratnam, Arjun Mathur and Rajat Kapoor the film is a charming directorial by Anu Menon.

Story : Shiv is a retired professor who visits his wife of 40 years every day as she lies comatose in a sterile hospital room. He’s friends with everyone in the hospital, except the doctor (Rajat Kapoor) who tells him that his wife is beyond cure. Stuck in denial, Shiv flies into rages, pores over medical journals and cites case histories of patients who have woken up from deep comas to anyone who would listen.

Tara, on the other hand, is jolted from newly-wed bliss when her husband has an accident that leaves him with a serious brain injury and the possibility of never fully recovering. Stuck in a new city, unable to come to grips with her situation, she finds a friend in Shiv. He shakes her out of her stupor. “There has to be purposefulness in your waiting,” he tells her.

What’s hot:  You will be especially flabbergasted at this wonderful work of Anu Menon. The entire vibe of the film such heavy undertones of life’s impermanence taught to us in a basic yet significant way that even after the film closes you are left with this sentiment having been through the turmoil of life and loss of the two characters.

What’s not: A couple of things that predominantly did not go with the movie was the part where Tara suspects her spouse of being involved in an extramarital affair. Or the part where Shiv confides about his one-night stand to his wife and asks for her forgiveness. Otherwise, the movie is too perfect to point out flaws. Mikey McCleary’s music is not too weight; it seems to go perfectly with the plot of the movie, just like his work in Kalki’s previous movie Margarita With a Straw.

Performances : Shah and Koechlin complement the film’s non-preachy and realistic tone. There is a natural rhythm to their acting and the chemistry between them is unmistakable.

Tara is the kind of woman who thinks nothing of making her husband’s evidently conservative colleague squirm by asking him if Rajat was sleeping with a business associate. Koechlin’s achievement is that she makes her character appealing despite her boldness.

Shah is charismatic as ever. The actor does not resort to overstatement at any point although there are plenty of scenes where he could have. Even when Shiv gets panicky about Pankaja, care is taken not to reduce him to a caricature of an eccentric old man.

His is a seemingly effortless and moving performance.



Overall , without a doubt, this modulate piece of life is an absolute must watch!