Review: Gehraiyaan

Shakun Batra’s Gehraiyaan is a deep-dive into the complexities of trauma, human behaviour and its consequences, that get painfully dissected in the lives of young upwardly mobile people. It is a story mired in tangled pasts and relationships, that’s tough to narrate.

A self-professed student of Woody Allen and Michael Scorsese, Batra’s film is quite similar to the concept of the 2005 Woody Allen film Match Point. But here, he said he ‘choreographed chaos’. In the film he tries to give a visual sense to the emotion that we as humans create, outside the condition of romance. Moments are not directed as it is, but as who the characters of the film are as people.

Deepika Padukone, plays Alisha, a yoga instructor who is in a monotonous relationship with a struggling novel writer Karan, played by Dhairya Karwa, who has previously left his ad agency. In one scene Karan wears a shirt that says ‘I’ll do it tomorrow’, which shows his laid-back attitude at life. Alisha fusses over small things such as the correct disposal of the household garbage. In one scene, she stares wistfully from the gate of her modest Mumbai apartment block, perhaps wishing for a better life or some escape from reality.

On the other hand, Alisha’s cousin Tia, played by Ananya Panday, faces problems of her own. She is well-to-do and in love with a rich entrepreneur, Zain, played by Siddhant Chaturvedi, but faces problems of emotional insecurities. Despite this, Tia and Zain are already living the good life. She is planning their wedding in Tuscany. He’s running a major construction project in Alibag and has rented a yacht to impress potential clients. Over a weekend getaway, the four of them go on a yacht to Alibag to the house that shaped Tia and Alisha’s childhood. In the outing to Alibaug, Alisha meets her cousin’s fiancé. And that is where their romance starts to blossom. This leads to heartbreak and tragedy but not the kind you expect.

I loved how nothing is at the surface level. Batra examines the complexities in a very nuanced way – showing the love of two characters from two Mumbais – one, from a high rise with a walk-in closet, and the other, from a scrambling house in which everyday electricity bills are also a problem to pay.

The characters Alisha and Zain, both starting with the first and last letter of the alphabet struggle with childhood trauma. What they find is solace somewhere in the middle. On one hand, Alisha’s mother left her at a small age, by hanging herself. On the other hand, Zain abandoned his mother and called the cops to complain about domestic abuse. Their relationship, which is as complex as it gets, starts on the yacht, wherein flirtation escalates into a ferocious passion.

This yacht plays a pivotal role. Looking exactly like a home, and becoming the ‘home’ where a person finds solace, for Alisha and Zain, the yacht is on unsettled waters.

A still from Gehraiyaan.

One of my favorite parts of the film is the characterization. All the principal characters are flawed – you are not rooting for anyone. Everyone is negotiating with their lives, careers, and relationships, building and destroying them. Love and passion is not the only thing at stake here – it’s also everyday issues such as money, respect, and opportunities.

Batra has also paid attention to very nuanced details in his characterization. Alisha, with a troubled past, suffers from anxiety. Small details such as feet shaking, hand shaking, trembling, fingernail tapping, are all carefully framed and articulated throughout the film.

Kudos are also deserved to be given to the intimacy director, Dar Gai, who has created music videos such as Prateek Kuhad’s Cold Mess, and Ritviz’s Sage and Liggi. The background score and music, composed by Kabeer Kathpalia aka OAFF will also keep you jamming along.

Shakun Batra and DoP Kaushal Shah, who has previously worked on Mumbai Diaries 26/11, create magic, using soft lighting and try to bring out their best in terms of framing and designing every shot – the frames between the two sisters also bring out their differences. While Alisha opts for monochrome/single colours in outfits, Tia opts for polka dots, and more flashy colours.

Deepika Padukone and Ananya Panday play sister’s in Shakun Batra’s Gehraiyaan.

Wonderful shots of the waves receding to and fro from the beach act as transitions between the scenes. These waves, often get deeper, as slowly we see underwater shots in the transitions, explaining the deepening end of the relationships and complexities.

What comes out of Gehraiyaan is that people do not always act with reason, childhood memories shape our decisions and influence our follies, and the shadow of the past looms on the present and the future.

Naseeruddin Shah, who plays Vinod, Alisha’s father acts like a silent observer in the film. With almost less than 20 minutes of screentime, he can shape-shift into the role very easily.  Moreover, the composure with which Shah’s character is shown to deal with the discovery of his daughter self-harming, was not something I was expecting from a mainstream Bollywood movie.

He also reminded me a lot of the flawed father’s role he essayed in Zoya Akhtar’s Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011).

At the end of the film, in a so called ‘plot-twist’, we are shown a lady that previously met Alisha and Zain on the yacht. There are several theories why Batra had added that scene. For me, a most defining reason is that the lady, a 80-year-old female, remembers the past very well (by remembering Alisha’s name), while Alisha is trying to let go of her past.

Gehraiyaan sums up how life is bigger than one mistake. The movie tries to show how one’s childhood traumas can define their narrative, but also how, through their own choices, they have the power to redefine it — to some extent, at least, if not entirely, by choosing to move on, by giving yourself a chance.