A perfect match and a winner
QARIB QARIB SINGLLE Direction: Tanuja Chandra Actors: Irrfan Khan, Parvathy Rating:
Tanuja Chandra returns to the bigscreen after a gap of nine years with a mature love story that’s refreshingly sweet.
In Qarib Qarib Singlle, two adults (Irrfan Khan-Parvathy) embark on a journey and discover themselves in the process. Jaya is a work-obsessed 35-year-old widow whose understated personality is reflected in her pastel dresses.
At work, she’s the boss; outside it, she lacks confidence and strives to please everyone around her.
Thanks to a dating website called Ab Tak Single, she meets Yogi. Outspoken, confident, clad in reds and yellows, this is someone who lives in the moment.
The movie takes a scenic journey from Mumbai to Dehdradun, Roorkee, Jaipur and Gangtok, but the plot never meanders. Whether in a train or on the road, it continues to unfold, delicately, as the two lead characters explore their new relationship in their very different ways.
This is not the Bollywood romance of flowers, bright red hearts and chocolate. The songs stay in the background.
Irrfan is lovely as the charming, mildly annoying Yogi. Malayalam actress Parvathy, in her Bollywood debut, is the perfect foil and balances delicately her character’s self-dependence and the loneliness it’s caused her. This film is a winner.