Island city is an anthology of three narratives from Mumbai. Three different storylines about discontented people, discontented life. The name island city depicts to people who have become isolated within themselves like an Island. Island City is a movie about depression, touching emotions, driving sentiments, sarcastic, funny and moreover a tragic end to all three stories. Even though the story is based in Mumbai, but people across all places can connect to the stories told here.
Released in Sept'15, directed & screenplay by debutante director Ruchika Oberoi, produced by NFDC, the movie won FEDORA prize for the Best Young Director at Venice Film Festival where it was released and showcased for the first time.
"Fun Committee" written by Ruchika Oberoi revolves around a earnest Corporate Employee Suyash Chaturvedi played by Vinay Pathak. He lives a perfunctory life like many of those people living in metropolitan cities. He wakes up, eats, gets ready for office, comes back, sleeps to repeat the routine next day. His life looks monotonous and purposeless. A newly designed Fun Committee decides to reward their star employees a day of fun to de-stress them; only that the fun is forced on them even if they don't want it. Vinay Pathak when declared as the Star employee of the month is awarded certain coupons and tasks which has to be completed by 6pm of the day after which he has to report back to office for the final task. While he is being given royal treatment across all places that he is going, but his look clearly shows him appearing like a machine following commands. All those working in Corporate can relate to this story.
"The Ghost in the machine written by Ruchika Oberoi" is a heart warming story of a housewife played by Amruta Subhash, who heaves a sigh of relief when her husband is admitted in hospital after a coma attack. The ever abusing husband is a major irritant to the entire family. For a change, she understands her self-worth after her husband is admitted in hospital. The housewife believes that brining a TV to their home will bring some delight to their home. The TV reaches home, and the entire family gets addicted to a soap called "Purushhotam Jee" which tells the story of a virtuous son and the story of his family. Amruta Subhash who plays the role of housewife connects to the soap very much since she feels the story is the dream she ever saw for her family.
The Final Story, "Contact written by Siddharth Sharma", is the story of those women who have always been told by their parents that they won't get their prince charming because of the way they look. Ruchika played by Tannishtha Chatterjee helps you find your inner voice with her powerful performance. Jignesh played by Chandan Roy Sanyal is a foul mouthed mechanic who wants to marry Aarti played by Tanishtha who works in a printing press. Aarti's life changed when she received a pink letter from a secret admirer which tells her about her inner desires. She falls head over heels on the letter writer and learnt to smile for the first time in her life. Many letters are exchanged between them through an unknown PO Box number. But she has absolutely no idea where this will lead to. She gets the courage to refuse marrying Jignesh in the hope of marrying the letter writer.
All the three stories dig out your inner grief that lurks in some innermost corner of your heart. A must watch for the brilliant way, love, loneliness and depression is depicted. All the stories are inter connected with very thin lines which makes it look little simulated except for the first and third story. But that can be ignored with the way the entire setup has been presented. All the three stories are connected by a Company called "Systematic Statistics" where Suyash (Fun Committee) works. The common points in all stories are the dominant men in all the stories, the dissatisfied people, anxiety, and depression.
Each of the stories has an appalling end that gives a brilliant twist to the story which is beyond imagination. While you smile at the amusing incidents, you also empathize with the characters; you sob in their pain, you sense your loneliness with theirs. Amruta Subhash who has just one movie to her credit as the sister of Nawazuddin in Raman Raghav 2.0, has been brilliant and even overshadowed an actress of the calibre Tannishtha Chatterjee.
