Trapped in a bad dream
MY BIRTHDAY SONG Direction: Samir Soni Actors: Sanjay Suri, Nora Fatehi Rating:
What would you do if you had a horrible nightmare, and woke up to find it coming true bit by bit? That’s the premise of Samir Soni’s debut film, My Birthday Song, and as concepts go, it’s a fairly intriguing one.
Ad agency owner, Rajiv Kaul (Sanjay Suri), has the scary dream and wakes up to see parts of it repeated in different settings and places through the day. Afraid that it will end the way his dream did – in catastrophe – he tries to interfere and alter the outcome.
Will he succeed? Is it all just coincidence? Or did his nightmare actually give him a glimpse of what his 40th birthday held in store?
The film is engaging; its twists continue to surprise. Suri is effective as the protagonist plagued by confusion, fear and guilt.
My Birthday Song hinges on him, and he carries the film admirably well. The dialogue is a mix of English and Hinglish, in keeping with the upper-middle-class milieu of its key characters.
It’s the heavy-handed cinematic treatment that lets the film down — shaky frames, strange angles, sudden jump cuts. What starts out as intriguing begins to feel jarring and repetitive as a result.
Both Purab Kohli and Pitobash, in guest appearances, are wasted. There are random monologues on values and philosophy.
We can only hope Soni learns from the mistakes and fares better next time around.