Udaan

Director: Vikramaditya Motwane

Cast: Rajat Barmecha, Ronit Roy, Aayan Boradia, Ram Kapoor, Manjot Singh, Anand Tiwari, Suman Mastkar, Raja Hudda, Varun Khettry, Shaunak Sengupta, Akshay Sachdev

Master director Kanti Shah’s unique contribution to the warped Indian male hormone, I’m afraid, will remain under-rated forever. I don’t know how many of you’ve heard of Mr Shah’s grind-house classics – Gunda, Loha, Phoolan Haseena Ramkali.

Video generation of the early ‘90s is likely to know him better, and perhaps relate to the four Bishop Cotton schoolboys in this film, caught at a late night show of Kanti Shah’s Angoor at Shimla’s Rivoli cinema. That Rivoli, I suppose, could well be in Delhi’s Cannaught Place. The title of the precious outlet of youth would remain the same. Mr Shah (and the likes) united the repressed, pre-Internet Indian young back in the day, in ways only MTV Grind could do later.

These kids, in their boarding school night uniform, are chased back to the hostel by a warden, who’s himself caught cherishing an extra-marital snog in the backseats of the same theatre. The boys are instantly expelled from school, packed off home.

This, in the case of the three friends perhaps means a wilder life in Mumbai; for Rohan (Rajat Bharmecha, beguilingly calm), it’s a trip back to a father he hasn’t seen in 8 years, a 6-year-old step-brother he didn’t even know existed, and memories of a mother who’s no more. The place is Jamshedpur. Where they also make steel. The boy’s forced into his father’s factory, and to learn engineering.

All small town fathers are the same, the boy’s new drunken friends from the local school tell him over gallons of cheap rum, parodying a popular ‘90s song: “Family business: very good, very good. Dream business: very bad, very bad.”

This 17-year-old dreams of becoming a writer some day. Small towns bear fewer routes for such professional escape. Dutch courage of youth will play itself out only over brawls at shady bars and similar frustrations when you’re gifted with an abusive, difficult father (Ronit Roy; in character, as they say) who’s so selfishly thickheaded, and with enough problems of his own. The boy calls him ‘Sir”, because the dad wants him to -- demands respect, when he commands none; seeks relationship with alcohol, since most others are likely to let him down.

Unhappiness, like loneliness, you can tell, is a mental disease. Unhappy people are most unhappy with others’ happiness first. This projection quality alone is its scariest symptom. You can sense this film’s disturbing tension seamlessly seep into your internal recesses. Very few films manage to have such effect on their audiences; fewer audiences still prefer such violent checks on their own reality. You wish they would.

I guess movies can either take you away from problems, or compel you to deal with them directly. And they can both make for good films. Just as there’s the fine ‘coming-of-age’ movie where natural order of things get somehow conveniently restored (Wake Up Sid, perhaps), there ought to be the film where you rightly suppose you hadn’t come of age after all. This is that rare, superior latter: a bleak beauty, a commendable debut. For Rohan, I reckon, it’s clear that dreams don't always come true. And that's a reality often from accidents of birth – that most merely contend with, and in their own ways, move on from.

For a film this sorted in its approach, it is slightly disappointing to reach an end that appears an alternate one. Maybe because such true stories don't really have endings. They merely continue through a cycle of generations. Mildly observe the unhappiness around you will know. The movie’s certainly worth a trip back to somewhat figure why. Co-produced by Anurag Kashyap, Sanjay Singh and UTV Motion Pictures, the small budget drama features 17-year-old Rajat Barmecha along with popular TV stars Ronit Roy and Ram Kapoor.

"What '3 Idiots' has said, this film will take that forward. The perception of people is changing in society. 'Udaan' has a good story to tell," Kashyap had said. Kashyap's first independent production, "Udaan" was selected for the Un Certain Regard category at the 63rd Cannes International Film Festival this year.

Set in Jamshedpur, "Udaan" is the story of Rohan (Rajat), a teenage boy, who returns home after being abandoned for eight years in a boarding school. He finds himself closeted with an authoritarian father and a younger half brother, who he didn't even know existed.

A story about a father-son relationship, "Udaan" is Rohan's journey, who is forced to work in his father's steel factory and study engineering against his wishes, as he strives to forge his own life out of his given circumstances to pursue his dream of becoming a writer and leaves his house to chart his own course.

Motwane describes his directorial venture as "a very simple, straightforward film more than that it's a very emotional film. It's about a boy's journey". "The father wants the son to do something and the son wants something different and what happens at the end of the film is the culmination of that relationship." Not many know that the movie also has elements of Kashyap's life, who left his parent's home in 1993 to pursue his dreams.

Adding a rebellious zing to the movie is its soundtrack by Amit Trivedi which is already a hit among the youth. "Udaan" might have got international acclaim post Cannes, but Motwane had to wait for over five years to get a producer. "My script was ready in 2003. It took five years to take the picture off the ground. It took so long to get producers, as no one was ready to take the film. It might be because in 2003, multiplexes were not in existence. Today it has become easier," he said.

And that is when Kashyap stepped in. Motwane had hired him to write the dialogues for the movie in 2003, but when he failed to find a producer, Kashyap decided to take charge. Considering Kashyap's penchant for contemporary stories rooted in an individual's consciousness, it seems like he has just another hit to add to his credits.