Gulbadan

So last night, with a relentless barrage of snow outside, I stayed up till very late watching a movie that was special in all ways. It was a freshly-released, little-heard-of Bollywood film by the name of Dasvidaniya, a title that is vague and exotic-sounding, but not in the most pleasant, intellectual manner.

The movie stars good but less popular actors like Vinay Pathak and Rajat Kapoor, who have consistently appeared in well-made, funny movies, like Bheja Fry last year. So after I had finished the illegal download, I pressed play expecting some nice, smart jokes and what is pretentiously referred to as 'clean humor.'

Surprisingly, the movie turned out quite differently. It was an emotional, moving tale about a totally mundane dude living a totally mundane life who negotiates through a difficult episode in his life with such endearing mundaneness that it made me root for him all throughout.

Our 'hero' is a 37-year-old guy, single, stuck in a mindless job with a horrible boss and silly coworkers, even more average-looking than yours truly, not having ever done anything fun in life (smoking, drinking, chicks, gambling etcetera etcetera; when someone asks him if he's ever paid money for a prostitute, he innocently mentions that he once saw a porno aged fourteen) with a mother addicted to television serials and an estranged film director brother. The highlight of his day, in fact, is to make a fresh to-do list every morning. This list includes further mundane things like shouting at the laundry guy, fixing the tv remote, getting batteries for mom's hearing aid, etc. And as someone who's been making such lists for the past many months, I can tell you with great confidence that these damn things come to dominate your life totally and completely.

And so, this is our 'hero' - ruled by his mundane to-do lists for the day. Until he finds out that he has stomach cancer and, because of a late diagnosis, only three more months to live. And then it hits him: his whole life has been an absolute useless waste. Realizing he hasn't 'lived' (and spurred on by a guy he meets in a bar while drinking for the first time who tells him that with the kind of life he has lived he's better off dead in any case), he then proceeds to make the final to-do list of his life: "things to do before I die."

The rest of the movie then follows him as he tries to do each of those things, which range from the most basic (buying a new car, going on his first-ever foreign trip) to the most personal (making up with his brother). Throughout his journey, he suffers one setback after another, realizing that it is going be harder than he thought to give his life meaning before his time runs out. Through sheer persistence and at times dumb luck, though, he is, one by one, able to check the items off on his seminal to-do list.

The movie is filled with touching scenes. The most impactful one is when, on his foreign trip and realizing how this new list is a complete waste of time and his life is useless and not worth living, he breaks down for the first time since his diagnosis, crying his heart out sitting alone in a foreign land. Even a selfish, inconsiderate buffoon like myself had a small tear or two in his eyes, as our 'hero' bawls away. In another one, when he has finally accomplished his childhood dream of learning to play the guitar, his tutor notices him sad and asks "any problem in life?" he responds with a smile and says "sir, life has become my problem."

This movie is no Slumdog Millionaire. There is no glamorized concept, a funky hotshot Hollywood director discovering a touching fantasy in one the largest slums in the world, and no Oscar buzz either. This is also not a Rab Ne Bana De Jodi, fuelled by star power, where a geeky Shahrukh Khan transforms into a sexy dancing stud (although the film has by far the most catchy Bollywood music in recent times). Nor is this a Warner Brothers-funded Chandni Chowk to China, with Akshay Kumar becoming an ancient Chinese emperor from a random cook. Instead, this is the most simple, under-the-radar film that promises to endear itself to you.

Two hours well-spent, people. This movie has put me in a happy mood. And very few things do that. :) Go download it off torrents right now.