Udaan

This has been a long pending post. But, thanks to the DVD in my possession now, I revisit it 2 months later and the feelings it invokes are as fresh and heart-felt.

Udaan is simple. So it is but natural to understand the " what's the big deal?" comments. It released along with the visually acrobatic Inception, so it was bound to be underwritten, even though the two are worlds apart.

For me, the very fact that a simple story plays on screen, minus frills, yet with so much flavour is a good movie. The flavour of Udaan is a mix of curbed ambitions and feelings inside Rohan, that find the courage and flight in the end.

The stark, shady start to the quaint steel town of Jamshedpur, everything is life-like. The terrorizing father too, who sometimes may seem exaggerated seems believably loathsome.  The kid brother brings lighter moments to the film and is as wonderful as the rest of the cast.

What stays with me from this movie, is a parallel of the 'Mohan drinks water from urchin in Swades' and ' Ashok tells Gogol about how he reminds him of every moment in his life after the accident in Namesake.' 

It is the final flight moment when Rohan walks out with his elder brother to live a better life and simultaneously his voiceover plays as his father reads his letter- that please don't even try to understand, as it is about something you will never understand- Love.

Such a poignant and powerful moment in any film that summarizes the spirit of that movie is plain moving and becomes a memory of that film.

Not to mention the opening and closing tracks and the beautiful poetry which only enhance the spirit of the film. This remains a benchmark for this year, and I am sure would remain unsurpassed. For, a well-rounded sincere film in it's own capacity is rare to be found.