"Zindaggi Rocks" is a kind of a film that might appear interesting with its two-liner plot outline narration given to the actors or the producer. But when those two lines are developed into a 200 hundred-page screenplay it loses its impact and charm. That's because the screenplay could well have been completed in just hundred pages and the movie could have been half its runtime length making it more crispy and gripping. But a Bollywood filmmaker can't resist the temptation to cram the film with emotions, drama, romance, comedy and a dozen songs (even if none of it is mandatory) thereby hampering the actual essence.
The movie opens with Dr Samir Rehan (Shiny Ahuja) being summoned by the police for some investigation. Don't ask why the cops summon him, because it is never explained in the film.
The entire movie opens in flashback mode with Shiny's (or whoever has dubbed for him) emotionless and bland voice-over. Shiny is a doctor who falls in love with Sushmita who plays a rock star (well that's what we are forced to believe).
But then the actual story of the movie begins when we get to know that Sushmita's adopted son needs a heart transplant desperately. And we get to know this only post interval. This means that there is no story in the first half at all. Just unnecessary and insipid scenes going on and on! Even in the second half, the film takes too long to deal with the core theme and wastes unnecessary reels on verbose dialogues, abstract poetry and redundant songs. If that's not enough there is also a romantic angle between the 10-year-old foster son and his classmate. Add to it some incomprehensible, metaphorical 'durkut raja' fables forced in.
The major flaw in the film is that the emotions portrayed by the characters fail to connect with the viewer. While the film squanders a lot of time in the Sushmita-Shiny love story you still don't feel any chemistry happening between the two.
A word of advice to the director ? just smooch scenes between couples doesn't ensure smooth chemistry. While Sushmita goes over-the-top most of the times, Shiny is as faded and expressionless as possible. Even the emotional bonding between Sushmita and her adopted son doesn't strike a chord with you. And what on earth made Moushmi Chatterjee do a double role as the simple and sophisticated sister, in a film where she was boring in both. While her Bengali accent is evidently irritating in her simplistic avatar, as the stylish tomboy sister she hams hysterically. Also why did the director want a wannabe cowboy character (Ravi Gossain) in the film? And what was Kim Sharma doing in the film? Inflicting more pain to the audiences' senses? Blame it to the lousiness of the director of the incapability of the actors but the performances in this film are plain below average.
Another bone of contention is that why did the director Tanuja Chandra want Sushmita's character to be that of a rock star while the film's storyline doesn't demand anything of it? In fact even the film was promoted as if it was about the life of a rock star. Sushmita looks old in certain frames and despite having the charisma to pull off a rock star isn't used to her potential.
The music is peppy at times but an overdose of it spoils it all. The background score is not at all in sync with the proceedings on screen. At many instances the scenes turn out to be unintentionally funny. Editing is as good as absent from the film.
The instant hangover after watching this film would surely be Zindaggi doesn't rock. Rather it sucks. Let me not use any more rhyming words to describe the state of mind.
