Mausam: Old world romance


Mausam
Staring: Shahid Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor, Anupam Kher, Supriya Pathak
At: PVR & others
Rated: 6/10
You wouldn’t expect anything but an extremely righteous movie from the stock of a seasoned cinematist like Pankaj Kapoor and Mausam is nothing but that — politically impeccable, picture perfect, dignified in love, controlled in war and quite maturely balanced between history and romance, old world charm and modern mores, not to mention poised in the midst of a tragedy of errors, missed opportunities, difficult circumstances and conniving persons.
Spanning the flashpoints of history over 13 years, across the globe, Kapoor pitches for a balance that can only come from experience — a quiet romance amid a raging war, a parallel cinema on a box office cabinet.
It all starts with flashpoint Kashmir where 1989 is spewing blood and venom. Kapoor picks a Kashmiri Muslim being targeted for saving a Kashmiri pundit and that sets the tone for the political correctness he embarks upon in the rest of the show.
Be it the praise he showers on the Indian Air Force, the poignance he adds to Kargil coffins, the oneness he shows in a far removed village of Punjab, the fallout he depicts of the Babri demolition, the unsaid result of Mumbai bombings, the changed world order post-9/11 or, for that matter, the fulfillment of romance that he finally scripts in the carnage that was Gujarat, every single frame is meticulously pre-meditated. Counterfoiling this is the village simplicity and freshness of Shahid Kapoor as also the shy yet becoming beauty of a Kashmiri Muslim girl in Sonam Kapoor whose circumstances are writ large on her emotive face with nude make-up.
As a debutant director, Kapoor does well to keep all the rage of history unfolding as only a backdrop to a romance that spans 13 years, three continents and many more events that, well, could have been, edited here and there.
Though Kapoor has been extremely in on detail on every count, the film will fail to draw the young generation. It is too slow, too long, too un-happening for the Facebook generation. Too many stolen looks, too many missed opportunities, too much of searching for the mate, too many adverse circumstances for this generation to indulge in.
Kapoor’s only failing in this one is the pace of an old man that he lends to his romance. He forgets, the film is not for his agewallahs but for the people of today who would have preferred a more in-your-face kind of love soiree. But then, not everything needs to cater to the young and the restless. Ones in their 40s or 50s, kindly tune in. Mausam is a mature and slow love story that prefers to be old world.
Source: Sunday Pioneer, 25 September, 2011

  

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