Dobara Alvida(YouTube Large Short Films)
Starring Swara Bhasker, Gulshan Devaiah, Swapnil Kotriwar
Directed by Shashank S Singh
Rating: **
Swara and Gulshan , SwaGul at one time , now separated, have less than 30 minutes in their shared cab to get re-acquainted.It is a stale premise served up with no inviting toppings. Forget the tadka even the gol-mirch is missing. The talkie trots along sleepily, and since the title is a dead giveaway(Alvida Dobara? Goodbye Again?)we know exactly how this shared-cab reunion is going to pan out.
Swara Bhaskar and Gulshan Devaiah are actors who always make sure they are able to instill some credibility beyond the script to their characters. They try their utmost to keel the interest level from flagging. But it doesn’t take us time to see where this brief road movie is going.
Nowhere.
The conversation between the former lovers is stilted to begin with. They then warm up. The Uber-cool driver chips in, “This cab has proved lucky for you two. It has reunited long-lost friends.”Swara then politely asks the cabbie(a more interesting character than his passengers) if he is married. She then gets to crack a feeble and offensive joke about the cab driver and his wife’s name.
Clearly this conversation is not getting anywhere.In the next few moments we get to know that Swara likes sweets, is wearing earrings(hideous ones at that) gifted by Gulshan, and that she reads his horoscope in the mornings , just to feel connected with him.We finally get to know that they separated because she was actively domineering while he was passively domineering
I don’t know what the driver’s response to this psycho-babble would be…perhaps, ‘Cabbie Cabbie mere dil mein khayaal aata hai’?
We don’t know. The ride has ended. And Arjit Singh’s soulful title song (which I suspect is the reason why this short film about a long taxi ride was made) begins…But wait! That’s not Arjit Singh .It is some soundalike called Krsna Solo. A deadringer in a short film with a title that is dead giveaway .It can’t get any deadlier than this.
