Film: Turning 30 (A)
Dir: Alankrita Shrivastava
Cast: Gul Panag, Purab Kohli, Sid Makkar
Rating: *
The idea of an Indian chick flick is exciting for sure. Turning 30 talks about a typical 30-year-old independent Mumbai woman’s life. Sure, we expect alcohol, cigarettes, men, sex, office politics and all that to be part of the film, but, unfortunately, by the end of the film you wonder if there’s anything more to a woman’s life than whining, wining and chasing men who don’t want her.
Naina Singh (Panag) is an advertising professional who is obsessed with David Ogilvy and leads pretty much a perfect life. Naina’s life starts falling apart when her boyfriend Rishabh (Makkar) dumps her for a younger woman. The break-up hits her hard, especially as she was expecting a proposal from him. At work, she is almost fired for no fault of hers. To top it all, she is going to turn 30 soon.
At this point, I guess the audience is supposed to feel sorry for Naina. On the contrary, I was feeling sorry for myself as I watched Naina force herself on Rishabh and then cry, drink wine, and cry some more.
At the cusp of turning 30, an old flame Jay (Kohli) makes a re-appearance in Naina’s life and Ms Whiney Singh jumps right into the sack with him. Of course, Jay’s confessions of stupidity for walking away from Whiney are as sincere as Whiney’s attempts to get over Rishabh. Whiney continues to wish for Rishabh to come back while she is canoodling Jay. After popping the question a million times, Jay walks out of the door and Naina continues to narrate her story in a forced, bookish English monologue in the background. Turns out that all this while, Whiney has been recording her sob story in a word document and her lesbian friend (there has to be a homosexual angle to a ‘mod’ film, no?) thinks it makes for an excellent read.
Although Ms Whiney Singh’s life turns around, the same can’t be said about the film. There are times during the first half when you can relate to a few things that Naina goes through, but then a forced dialogue or overdone cliché borrowed from one of the numerous Hollywood chick flicks follows, making you cringe in your seat. Naina and her friends try a bit too hard to be the Indian version of the characters of Sex and the City.
Barring the title track, the music is largely forgettable. The male item number thrown in to please the ‘chicks’ into watching this ‘flick’ is like a sour lassi served in a cocktail glass. The background score is almost like the instrumental music that you typically hear in hotel lobbies.
If you were excited about an Indian chick flick or rom-com, this is hardly it. Turning 30, with its weak dialogues, forced narrative and unoriginal storyline, fails to entertain. Give this one a miss.
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