Finally, Murakami comes to India. It's been a week since I saw Zero and I chose not to write about it then because it took me time to process what I had seen or rather experienced. This isn't as much a review as it is an expression of my feelings. *FEW SPOILERS*
Zero is a winner not because it is unconventional but because it stays true to what it is. We have all, at some point in our lives, dreamed of a miracle to happen. This is a movie of such miracles happening at regular intervals. The movie starts off in a typical Rai-Sharma style with the characters being established and a giveaway of a conflict that would soon seep into the screenplay. However this time, they take it a notch higher with Bauua (a brilliant SRK) swiping stars from the sky. I bought into the world immediately, hoping that I will be in for a joyride and I wasn't disappointed.
Unpopular opinion but I enjoyed the second half thoroughly. The first half was more of typical storytelling coming from the writer-director combination but the second half is where they upped the ante. I feel the idea of the film was inspired by Murakami's world. There are two regular people who get embroiled in a love story that has metaphysical elements and their life takes a turn with attributes like love, loss and life embodied, only to have those characters have a happy ending.
This is no easy film to sit through because it is illogical. Illogical not because it has stupidity written all over it but because we, as humans, cannot comprehend something that does not feature in our logical framework. The idea of finding our own realities in a world that is virtual has seeped in so much that we fail to differentiate between our imagination and what is real. At the core of it, Zero is a humane story of triumph, grief and emotions but is coated with a plotline that is beyond this world, both literally and psychologically. And this is what makes it great. How can you judge a film that is based on a parameter lying on the opposite end of the general human spectrum?
There are two ways to it. You either discard it or accept it in the form that it has been created. People chose the former and I have no issues with that. However, the film would go down as one of the finest experiences I have had inside a theatre because it transported me to a dimension within our world but a dimension we cannot feel because we have not sensed it. It does take its concepts literally but not seriously which is a dangerous line to function on.
Our logical framework has an ego that needs to be satisfied and the movie challenges it, just like any other Murakami novel. It puts in real characters with real inner conflicts and makes them do extraordinary things that people can only dream of. Bauua kept blaming his father for every trouble that he had to face in his life and the father, eventually, becomes the reason why Bauua and Afia did not end up together in the first place.
What I am trying to say is that everything fits but not in our realities, which does not make it untrue. I believed in the film since the trailer came out. I believed in the fact that Katrina would be the best part about it since her first poster came out. It had something to do with me being an SRK fan but the film has stayed with me for so long making me believe that my belief wasn't driven by my biases.
Unpopular opinion but I enjoyed the second half thoroughly. The first half was more of typical storytelling coming from the writer-director combination but the second half is where they upped the ante. I feel the idea of the film was inspired by Murakami's world. There are two regular people who get embroiled in a love story that has metaphysical elements and their life takes a turn with attributes like love, loss and life embodied, only to have those characters have a happy ending.
This is no easy film to sit through because it is illogical. Illogical not because it has stupidity written all over it but because we, as humans, cannot comprehend something that does not feature in our logical framework. The idea of finding our own realities in a world that is virtual has seeped in so much that we fail to differentiate between our imagination and what is real. At the core of it, Zero is a humane story of triumph, grief and emotions but is coated with a plotline that is beyond this world, both literally and psychologically. And this is what makes it great. How can you judge a film that is based on a parameter lying on the opposite end of the general human spectrum?
There are two ways to it. You either discard it or accept it in the form that it has been created. People chose the former and I have no issues with that. However, the film would go down as one of the finest experiences I have had inside a theatre because it transported me to a dimension within our world but a dimension we cannot feel because we have not sensed it. It does take its concepts literally but not seriously which is a dangerous line to function on.
Our logical framework has an ego that needs to be satisfied and the movie challenges it, just like any other Murakami novel. It puts in real characters with real inner conflicts and makes them do extraordinary things that people can only dream of. Bauua kept blaming his father for every trouble that he had to face in his life and the father, eventually, becomes the reason why Bauua and Afia did not end up together in the first place.
What I am trying to say is that everything fits but not in our realities, which does not make it untrue. I believed in the film since the trailer came out. I believed in the fact that Katrina would be the best part about it since her first poster came out. It had something to do with me being an SRK fan but the film has stayed with me for so long making me believe that my belief wasn't driven by my biases.
Zero is a movie that might never get its due which makes me feel bad. However, when I first compared it to a Murakami movie, a friend asked me not to glorify a shitty film but a true Murakami fan felt the same which gave a definition to my reality of this magnanimously beautiful and yet down to earth movie. Murakami has finally come to India.
It is never 'Sometimes that we wish for a miracle' (as I had mentioned) but 'ALWAYS' wishing for it.
P.S. - I did not intend to add these two points in my post but I cannot resist now, even after months of watching the film. Firstly, the no gravity scene of Zero where Anushka and Bauua have an argument of sorts, but the way it has been shown displays the genius of Rai. Two people, who have a story that does not belong to the world, are away from from the ground and are finding grounds to their haphazard bond.
The next one is probably the most beautiful feeling I have had inside a cinema hall. Anushka completing the countdown for Bauua and then swiping. This is the reason why I go to watch movies. The sheer bliss that the scene elicited from my face is a feeling I would want over and over again. I could not stop smiling since I had seen a moment that blew away my brain. Kudos to the team. And No, Shahrukh, you did not make a wrong film. It wasn't perceived correctly. Your count up till 5 was correct, we could not complete it to zero and therefore, did not see the night stars falling at our will.
It is never 'Sometimes that we wish for a miracle' (as I had mentioned) but 'ALWAYS' wishing for it.
P.S. - I did not intend to add these two points in my post but I cannot resist now, even after months of watching the film. Firstly, the no gravity scene of Zero where Anushka and Bauua have an argument of sorts, but the way it has been shown displays the genius of Rai. Two people, who have a story that does not belong to the world, are away from from the ground and are finding grounds to their haphazard bond.
The next one is probably the most beautiful feeling I have had inside a cinema hall. Anushka completing the countdown for Bauua and then swiping. This is the reason why I go to watch movies. The sheer bliss that the scene elicited from my face is a feeling I would want over and over again. I could not stop smiling since I had seen a moment that blew away my brain. Kudos to the team. And No, Shahrukh, you did not make a wrong film. It wasn't perceived correctly. Your count up till 5 was correct, we could not complete it to zero and therefore, did not see the night stars falling at our will.
