A slice of life revelation
FILM: Ribbon
CAST: Kalki Koechlin, Sumit Vyas, Hitesh Malhan
DIRECTOR: Rakhi Sandilya
RATING: ★★★
Good intentions don’t necessarily make for great cinema even if it does infuse the narrative with sincerity and realism. Rakhi Sandilya’s effort is one such. This story of a young upwardly mobile couple grappling with an unexpected, accidental pregnancy and its long-term aftermath (that could well spell trouble for their togetherness), is a little too wayward and sometimes even contrived, to be entirely believable.
Architect Karan Mehra (Sumeet Vyas) and Business analyst Sahana (Kalki) are a couple on the way up the ladder as far as their respective careers are concerned. Then comes the pregnancy and a literally hysterical Sahana goes off half-cocked wanting to abort, citing her career goals as an excuse. The funny thing is we don’t quite get what she was wailing about. She works in a small firm where her Boss makes monosyllabic quips regarding her indispensability and then promptly enough, when she goes on maternity leave, replaces her with her inept understudy- thus making her grovel for a job that she thought was hers alone.
A totally contrived set-up-there’s no valid reason why this should have happened because it was already established that her understudy wasn’t someone her boss was favourable to.
So, the narrative drags on further, making us privy to the other issues that ambitious young couples with a young child, grapple with as they attempt to climb up the corporate ladder- Sloppy at home child care, unsatisfactory nursery and day care facilities, cash crunches, job changes and then, eventually comes down to the issue of child molestation that appears to have come as an afterthought-given that the revelation comes much beyond the half-way stage.
The narrative is not as purposeful as it should have been and though the issues are handled with gentle concern, bringing out some of the complexities involved, it still does not manage to grip you regarding its cause celebre. Sahana is presented as highly strung and therefore doesn’t get the empathy she deserves even though she is the central character in the film. Kalki is competent enough but even she can’t rise above the sloppily written part. Sumit Vyas, though, is charismatic and stoic and leaves a much stronger impression of an actor who is ready to go places. Sandilya’s work, while sensitive and gritty, fails to connect and that’s something that is hard to overcome!