Personaggi poco amabili, vicende poco esaltanti, eppure non sono riuscita a staccare gli occhi dallo schermo, nemmeno alla seconda visione. Gehraiyaan è la combinazione perfettamente riuscita di una sceneggiatura sinuosa e compatta, dialoghi fluidi, regia ispirata, interpretazioni da manuale, confezione impeccabile. Un noir patinatissimo dall'atmosfera intima e fascinosa, complice una fotografia di prima classe che privilegia i toni dell'azzurro e del tortora. Il ritmo è rilassato, quasi dimesso. La colonna sonora, mai invadente, accarezza immagini e stati d'animo. Gehraiyaan, con la sua morbidezza seducente, fa intuire un'intensità forse solo simulata.
Il soggetto si spinge oltre il semplice canovaccio infedeltà-bugie. Il perno è l'intreccio di vita personale e vita professionale, tema raramente indagato dalla cinematografia popolare hindi. I personaggi sono imperfetti ma vorrebbero vivere esistenze perfette, non si evolvono, corrono in circolo, fuggono dalle proprie radici, inseguono sogni e desideri. Le interazioni fra loro sono disinvolte, la connessione con lo spettatore funziona. La parabola di Zain è la più interessante, una sorta di esperimento emotivo: l'amore può trasformarsi in odio se ostacola la realizzazione di ambizioni sfrenate?
Deepika Padukone è irresistibilmente naturale, e arricchisce la sua Alisha di spessore drammatico. Tutto il cast è convincente, inclusa Ananya Panday che riluce in un ruolo tagliato su misura per lei. Shakun Batra, la sceneggiatrice Ayesha DeVitre e la Dharma Productions, al terzo progetto concretizzato insieme confermano la traiettoria, personale e vincente, che caratterizza la filmografia di Batra, regista da cui in futuro è lecito aspettarsi solo grandi cose.
TRAMA
Alisha è un'insegnante di yoga. Convive con il fidanzato, Karan, aspirante scrittore. La facoltosa Tia è cugina di Alisha, ed è la migliore amica di Karan. Dopo anni, le due ragazze si ritrovano, e in quell'occasione Alisha incontra Zain, l'ambizioso fidanzato di Tia.
RECENSIONI
Mid-Day: *** 1/2
'This is really a film about young, cold, clinical, professional ambitions at the base. Something we don’t usually watch messing with movie romances, about good-looking desi people, in general. (...) Sat through all of it; pleasantly intrigued, in fact'.
Mayank Shekhar, 12.02.22
Film Companion:
'Alisha and Zain seek in each other a future that escapes not just the present but also the past. Their compatibility is not driven by choice so much as the desperation to acquaint desire with destiny. What follows is a remarkably intense movie that crosses many bridges - connecting integrity and individualism, infidelity and self-realization, trauma and intimacy, aspiration and love. The outsiders of Gehraiyaan are not handled with kid gloves. They are cleverly cast, and the writing sets out to investigate their truth. Most of all, they are both victims and villains of their own fate. For strivers like Alisha and Zain, a relationship cannot afford to be just a relationship: it needs to feature all the gratification and good fortune that their peers seem to have inherited. It needs to build and repair at once. The risks are high, so the stakes are higher. I kept rooting for the alleged soulmates, without noticing that both of them are actually protagonists jostling to own the same narrative. There’s only space for one. As a result, the good-looking love story heads into unchartered territory - the third act is a bit contrived, but necessary in context of the bigger picture. A revelation towards the end brings it all together with moving clarity. It’s the moment I realized that the edgy domestic thriller was in fact a dark coming-of-age drama all along. (...) The score - a mix of empty euphoria and whispery strings - sounds like an extension of not the film but its faces. Humans tend to process experiences through the music they like, so the tracks here are essentially a blueprint of their Hinglish moods. They think in sexy melodies; (...) they imagine themselves as haunting music videos. (...) The richness in Gehraiyaan, too, is not a cosmetic language; it’s a social crutch. (...) [Zain's] real estate career is its own character - the most visual symbol of power. Kaushal Shah’s camerawork alone suggests that Zain’s addiction to the lifestyle shapes his reading of companionship. He views Mumbai as a playground of prestige and privacy. Zain knows that if he loses his money, he will also lose the courage to care; he suspects that love is futile without the story. Very few films acknowledge that feelings do not exist in isolation - and that professional success goes hand in hand with personal worth. The second half of Gehraiyaan is frightfully pragmatic in this sense. It unfurls like a biopic going off the rails, where the ghost of failure looms large over the spirit of chemistry. The formidable Siddhant Chaturvedi exudes a lopsided charm that enables this tonal shift. It’s an uncomfortable role, but not an unrewarding one. At its core, though, Gehraiyaan - like Batra’s first two films - is a study of reluctant familyhood. (...) Alisha’s decisions - cheating on a dead-weight partner, choosing a passionate lover - are a consequence of who she doesn’t want to be, not who she hopes to become. (...) She is, for all means and purposes, the lost daughter. (...) The film imitates the psychology of these young protagonists. Old parents exist as shadows, at the periphery of both mind and narrative. But their legacy creeps up on the kids who are trying to shed it. This ties into a generation’s greatest fear - of turning into the very people we leave behind. (...) Alisha is not just Padukone’s career best performance, but also one of the great portraits of contemporary womanhood. (...) In her hands, the spiritual leanings of Gehraiyaan acquire a life of their own'.
Rahul Desai, 11.02.22
Cinema Hindi: ****
Punto di forza: il film è ipnotico, Deepika Padukone pazzesca.
Punto debole: -
SCHEDA DEL FILM
Cast:
* Deepika Padukone - Alisha
* Siddhant Chaturvedi - Zain
* Ananya Panday - Tia, cugina di Alisha, fidanzata di Zain
* Dhairya Karwa - Karan, fidanzato di Alisha e migliore amico di Tia
* Naseeruddina Shah - padre di Alisha
* Rajat Kapoor - Jitesh, socio di Zain
Regia: Shakun Batra
Soggetto: Ayesha DeVitre, Shakun Batra
Sceneggiatura: Ayesha DeVitre, Sumit Roy, Shakun Batra, Yash Sahai
Dialoghi: Yash Sahai, Ayesha DeVitre
Colonna sonora: Kabeer Kathpalia (OAFF), Savera Mehta. Il brano Doobey rispecchia efficacemente il tono del film.
Fotografia: Kaushal Shah
Traduzione del titolo: depths
Anno: 2022
CURIOSITÀ
* Gehraiyaan si ispira a Match Point.
* Riferimenti all'Italia: Tia vorrebbe sposarsi in Toscana, Zain apprezza la burrata.
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