Sixteen

Usually I'm not interested in this type of movies so very first hour I escape most of the scenes but then I got the real fun. The story was good and quite accurate but the execution wasn't. Ending so acceptable because all we got realized our fault after our adolescence.

Just a few days back in a Gurgaon Pub (near New Delhi), there was a Police raid in which they found hundreds of School children (mostly in the age of 15-18), partying hard with loud music on, liquor bottles in hands and joints being smoked freely. The scene in the pub shocked the policemen hugely and then they decided to call all the parents of the kids at the spot to show them the result of their liberty given. The invitation of the party was reportedly passed on through FACEBOOK & WHATS Up accounts which deliberately targeted 'School Kids' in particular charging a fixed amount for the booze and eatables provided.

Now this is exactly one of the many problems of the youth depicted in this well intentioned film SIXTEEN, which tries to present it quite realistically with many shocking dialogues, never been used before in a Hindi Film Script till date. Thoughtfully directed by Raj Purohit, it can easily be called a decent attempt to showcase the sweet, energetic yet tough & indecisive years of the youth in the age group of 15-18. The age, when life and all its important emotions are being discovered for the first time like friendship, ambition, love, lust, sex and infatuation. The school days, when the young ones are willing to try anything just for experiencing it once in an adventurous mode but cannot see its drastic consequences due to their short sightedness. Those energetic years, when innocence is eager enough to give away to boldness and so called adulthood in a fast mode. And when the young ones are simply not interested to listen to any kind of advice or suggestion given by their respected grown-ups around, for any matter at all.

The film captures many tender moments of that age honestly and doesn't shy away from using the controversial phrases like "losing the virginity", "how was it for the first time" and many more. Its first half keeps progressing calmly with many occasional brilliant moments and then loses the grip post intermission due to too many sub-plots being tackled together. Plus one of its tracks around the father -son relationship goes over the top too with an unexpected tragic twist in its storyline. The not so memorable soundtrack hinders the pace regularly with few avoidable songs but the dialogues keep impressing the viewer a lot right till the end. In short, once the film is over, you just feel like having seen something good and better than many big over hyped projects but still not anything exceptionally great or path breaking.

In the performance section, SIXTEEN has many likable acts by its entire young cast including Izabelle Leite, Wamiqa Gabbi, Mehak Manwani, Rohan Mehra, Highphill Mathews and Varun Jhamb. Along with the younger brigade, Zakir Hussain is great as usual and both Prabhleen & Keith Sequeira put up a cool act together. But in order to reach its desired target audience, the film desperately needed a great energetic hit song which could bring in that young crowd in the theater on whom the film is entirely based upon.

Therefore in absence of any instantly catchy song and heavy promotional campaign, SIXTEEN will remain one of those genuine & well acted small attempts which will eventually find it hard to reach its young viewers. So in case you cannot find the spirit to watch it in the theaters then do try to catch it on DVD once it gets released in the home video market in the next few weeks.

at first, i thought this is another youth movies which shows party, girls in bikinis to give movie a hype, and just dumb youth kind of movie, but don't think this movie like student of the year, or yaariyan, or kind of rich young brat movies, this movies is the reality, whole movie is sensible, about some friends, how there lives have there bad moments, and how they react in those moments, how they handle themselves, this movie shows how a youth in 21st century lives, how this youth thinks, how this youth is more mature than its age, how we are thinking ahead of our age, this movie is great, story is amazing, i hate how this movie is so underrated, acting overall was great, would love to watch movies like this, a good step from bollywood, good movie,

9/10

One of the best movies i had ever seen. I like the movie. This movie was heart touching. For me this was a special one.

SIXTEEN well its the biggest surprise IF YOU SEE THE MOVIE WITHOUT KNOWING A THING EXCEPT A GENERAL CONCEPT..

PLOT : sixteen deals with lives of four teenagers who are on the verge of facing the world, four lives, waiting to be churned in the flow of time.

CAST : NIDHI (Mehak Manwani) TANISHA (Wamiqa Gabbi) ANU (Izabelle Liete) ASHWIN (Highphill Mathew) VIKRAM (Keith Sequeira)

Firstly , a wonderful film. it may not be star studded, super thrilling, action packed, but its a movie that remains in your heart for a while. a good storytelling, fresh concept, & fine performances that makes it a film with feelings, honesty, realism. 16 is a age which we take as new life to begin with. it revolves around love, sex, family, school, boyfriends, girlfriends and above all a search to know who are you..? the more you try to solve the more it gets puzzled. life has its own way of treating us, sixteen deals with these age..softly, politely, rudely, & emotionally.

Secondly, the film could have been around 10- 15 minutes shorter, its ending stretches. few shots should have been better, couple of good situation wasted by ASHWIN (mathew), specially the breakdown at the end. a bit less music. may be the story at few places could have been a bit better written

now.. don't read this review any more, it will get u in two minds. see the movie , u will feel great.. feel the movie, u should not regret. its different, its happening u will love the relationships.

watch out for TANISHA (WAMIQA GABBI) & VIKRAM (KEITH SEQUEIRA)