By a strange coincidence two of Shoojit Sircar’s finest works were released on the same date. While Vicky Donor was released on April 20, 2012, Shoojit’s October was released five years later on the same date.
Says Shoojit, “Yes,a very happy coincidence. I am happy that I could make both these stories. I didn’t think that film would get so much love. During the pandemic October actually got a huge surprise following among film lovers. I never got so many beautiful messages before. In Vicky Donor I am glad that I could stick to the essence of the narrative and didn’t get lost with just comedic gimmicks. It was a difficult taboo subject to handle then. But now it’s a more comfortable theme to tackle.”
Vicky Donor and October are poles apart in theme and treatment. Vicky Donor is original and thoroughly engaging. It makes you feel blessed and blissed. How good it feel to watch a director pick up a pertinent issue and convert it into a perky precocious and endearing rom-com which is less rom and ,ahem, a whole lot of cum. Indeed Vicky Donor is suffused with delectable plus points, not the least of them being debutant Ayushmann Khurana who seems to be born to play Vicky the sperm donor. He has formidable competition in the acting department from Kamlesh Gill and Dolly Ahluwalia who play his grand mom and mom, and from the redoubtable Anu Kapoor who as the sperm doctor, adds so much to his role and to the film you wonder why he isn’t seen more often in our films. Each character is written with a keen for details that go a long way in giving them a life beyond the camera.
In October too Shoojit Sircar understands and empathizes with the pulse of the working class, their fears and anxieties. It could be an abundant sperm count (Vicky Donor) or constipation (Piku). The anxiety never ceases. In October, it is death and mortality that binds the characters in a clasp of compassion, not in any obvious way. But in the way the un The plot is about an obdurate seemingly obnoxious hotel-management trainee, played with wilful gusto by Varun Dhawan, who decides that the quiet, shy colleague Shiuli (debutante Banita Sandhu) who has gone into a coma has some kind of a bonding with him.
Unsure of that thing we call love, Varun Dhawan’s Dan simply lives on the IDEA of love, extolling its idealism to a point where his existence is defined by one casual 3-worded question that Shiuli asked her colleagues before she slipped into a long coma.
Says Shoojit, “I am glad I got the chance of exploring different genres… and most importantly exploring lives of ordinary people .I love the pace of October…that’s my pace… peaceful.”
Shoojit is in touch with all actors from both the films Ayushmann Khurrana,Yami Gautam, Varun Dhawan, Banita Sandhu. “All the actors are still in touch with me… I repeated my collaboration with many actors from both the films in later films.”
Speaking of his biggest takeaway both the films Shoojit says, “The biggest takeaway was, sticking to core of the story, and not deviating, and that your integrity in the storytelling will find an audience. There are many things that I would want to change in Vicky Donor.But not much in October… film after film I am learning and trying not to repeat those mistakes.”
About his next film Shoojit says, “My next is again an ordinary story of an ordinary man..Abhishek Bachchan plays the protagonist.”
