Tuesday, June 5, 2018

A Poorly Made "Bucket List"!

I did not watch the 2007 American film "The Bucket List" starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. But I remember reading somewhere that it was about two terminally ill men who embark on a road trip with a wish list of things to do before they kicked the bucket. It was a box office success.

Recently I watched the Marathi "Bucket List", a new release marking Madhuri Dixit's entry into the world of Marathi films. When a star like Madhuri lends her name to a project, it is bound to arouse interest, and get people to engage with the project with heightened expectations. I am no exception and I went to watch the film anticipating a scintillating performance by her.

Madhuri plays an upper-middle class homemaker in her early forties who lives in a beautiful house in Pune with her husband, two children, parents-in-law and grandmother-in-law. She gets a new lease of life after a heart transplant surgery. When she finds out that the donor was a 21-year old young woman, she sets out to fulfil the wishes that are neatly jotted down in the deceased woman's bucket list. In this process she discovers herself, who was hidden under the persona of a wife, a mother and a daughter-in-law for all these years.


Fair enough. This could have been a good film, one of her several attempts to return to the big screen, and her stepping stone to a career in her mother tongue. She was playing a character that suited her age. She could have been instrumental in giving out a positive message about organ donation. In addition, she had a supporting cast featuring prominent names from the Marathi theatre and film industry. In spite of all this, the film just did not work for me.

Madhuri never looked convincing as a homemaker. She looked too poised with perfect hair and makeup to essay the role of someone who was cooking vegetables in four different ways to please everyone in the family, assisting her mother-in-law in her paapad-making enterprise, and in general being an ideal wife, mother and daughter-in-law around the house. Her Marathi sounded stunted, not having the ease of someone using the language for everyday conversation. Her super slim frame made her look more like a model than a homemaker with a comfortable lifestyle. And come on, which upper-middle class household has paapads being rolled in their living room with a bunch of women helping the lady of the house?

I wonder if Madhuri was inspired by Sridevi while playing a Maharashtrian homemaker. Sridevi played the role with ease in "English Vinglish".  Unfortunately Madhuri could not deliver. And her effort to emulate the late actress in comedy turned out to be a complete fiasco. Her antics in the pub's kitchen are neither amusing nor entertaining.

The direction (Tejas Vijay Deoskar) and dialogue (Tejas Vijay Deoskar and Devashree Shivadekar) are very ordinary. When the husband asks Madhuri's character where does he feature in her bucket list, she replies: you are not in my bucket list, you are my bucket! Excuse me, does this make any sense? There is nothing to write home about the dialogue. The characters drag the names of sponsors in their conversation in a jarring way.

The saving grace in the film is the presence of Sumit Raghavan, Vandana Gupte, Pradeep Welankar, Ila Bhate, and Dilip Prabhavalkar. They are seasoned actors and do not seem to be overwhelmed by Madhuri's star value. Sumit Raghavan holds his own as her husband. He could have done much better if his character was more well-defined. Madhuri's "Hum Aapke Hain Koun" co-star Renuka Shahane delivers a lacklustre performance as the dead woman's mother. Shubha Khote's role as the grandmother-in-law and her portrayal are both unrealistic and flawed. In fact, none of the characters is written well.

It is saddening to see Madhuri who ruled the silver screen for decades, making an appearance so listlessly in a production so unworthy of her presence. Even the dance sequence in the end lacked her magic touch. Perhaps it is time to wait for a better project and a better production team? Until then, let the memories of Madhuri in her heydays remain in our hearts!