Tribhanga: Bella imperfección

Good acting requires a fresh unpredictability. Was bored by the leads oh so mundane expressions

I wasn't expecting much but this movie left me in tears. I was weeping at the end of it.

I liked that it was bilingual to some extent -made it very authentic.

As a cinephile, this was great story telling. I hated kajol in the beginning how brash and obnoxious she was and not to mention abusive (seemed to close to her real life persona from movies).

Then as the movie progressed, it made sense why she was the way she was. Kunal Roy Kapur also stole the show, you feel for him.

The movie shines light on women and their choices in Indian patriarchal system and also children coming from "broken families". It was heart touching the way everything was dealt.

Surprised to see Kajol is such a dark movie + the movie made by some of the big names in Bollywood. Definitely, a great attempt at storytelling and also directing from a debutant director.

Kudos to Renuka Shahane.

Anuradha Apte (Kajol), an accomplished Odissi dancer is suddenly summoned to the hospital due to her mother Nayan's (Tanvi Azmi) having suffered a cerebral stroke, leading to coma. Anu arrives with her daughter Masha (Mithila Palkar) and brother Robindro (Vaibhav Tatwawaadi), rather nonchalantly, as she is not really emotionally connected to her mother, to the surprise of Milan (Kunal Roy Kapoor), who is penning Nayan's autobiography.

Tribhanga is a glimpse into the past of the three women across three generations, and how their respective choices of living their lives influenced and shaped that of the next generations. It's a domino effect in which Anu who suffered the effects of Nayan's choices, ensured Masha's childhood remained protected, and Masha in turn, rejoicing to live amid a large, joint family even at the expense of her individual freedom and values.

The subject is sensitive and has been handled with flourish by director Renuka Shahane. Kajol obviously gets the lion's share of screen time and is the central character - she delivers a strong performance that on a few occasions comes out as rather loud and over the top. Tanvi Azmi and Mithila Palkar have comparatively smaller roles, but don't fail to create a deep impact by holding their ground. Kunal Roy Kapoor is delightful as the outsider who connects the three women and helps reestablish mutual respect and appreciation. Tribhanga is a remarkable effort to showcase family values in modern times, and would have been even better if the events were better connected and the characters of Nayan and Masha were given more screen space. Baba Azmi's cinematography is par excellence.

Give it a try. It is a nice and simple story and brilliant acting from its star cast. But like always few curse words would have been avoided, cus i haven't seen a lady in her 40's using so many curse word, specially if she comes from a decent family.

Tribhanga (Netflix film) review :

Noted actor Renuka Shahane's directorial debut called Tribhanga explores multiple relationships through its three main characters transcending generations - grand mom (Tanvi Azmi), mother (Kajol) and her daughter (Mithila Parkar). Packing in the inter-familial conflict with feminism, child abuse, gender bias and whole lot of women centric issues, it appears the debutant director has bitten off more than she can chew.

Not that it is a bad effort, on the contrary, Renuka deserves praise for handling certain scenes with the right amount of grace and sensitivity. Like the scenes involving the step dad played by Kanwaljeet Singh (endearing). But somewhere, the screenplay appears hurried up to pack in every element at crisp one and half hours which makes me wonder if it was more suited for an elaborate web series than a film.

Expectedly, Kajol is excellent in the main role. The actor clearly rises above the script here and how!! Tanvi Azmi is equally good as her mom who sacrifices a lot to follow her writing passion. Mithila Parkar leaves a mark even in a small role.

On the other hand, the male characters appear ill written and totally caricatured. Kunal Roy Kapoor's performance borders on buffoonery and irritates to the hilt. Vaibhav Tatwawaadi, playing Kajols brother, isnt able to justify his character at all. The problem lies in the writing which is obviously tilted towards the female cast at the cost of crucial male characters. Indeed, a balance was needed here to make the resultant conflicts more identifiable and relatable.

Another drawback is the needless cussing done by Kajol's character. Sorry but all those F words only act as a distraction.

All said and seen, even with all its plus and minus, Tribhanga is one of the better films I caught in recent times on Netflix. Forget the AKs and Dolly Kittys out there, you can watch Tribhanga if you have subscribed to that OTT app. A one time watch, yes!!

Regards, Sumeet Nadkarni.