Star cast: Gul Panag, Purab Kohli, Sid Makkar.
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Plot: Gul Panag, who is turning 30, faces a crisis when her boyfriend, Sid Makkar, with whom she has had been in bed, walks out on her. She is also under the threat of being fired from her advertising job by her exploitative boss. Enter Purab Kohli, her ex-boyfriend. What happens next?
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What’s Bad: Lack of universal appeal in the script.
Verdict: Turning 30!!! will not work too well commercially but it is a well-made film for the multiplex audience.
Loo break: Not really.
Watch or Not? Yes, because it’s an honest attempt.
Prakash Jha Productions’ Turning 30!!! (Engish-Hindi; dubbed version also; A) is a coming-of-age film. It is the story of Naina (Gul Panag) whose boyfriend walks out on her and, at the same time, she is facing a crisis in her advertising career – all this even as she is about to turn 30.
Naina is going steady with Rishabh (Sid Makkar) who suddenly decides to walk out on her as he feels, Yamini (Ira Dubey) is a better match for him. This, even as Naina is actually expecting Rishabh, with whom she has been in bed umpteen times, to propose to her. At her work place, she faces the prospect of being fired on a flimsy ground. Even otherwise, she is very unhappy in the advertising agency she is working, because of the manipulations of her boss and colleagues. On top of all this, she is about to turn 30 because of which her mother keeps pressurising her to get married, if not to Rishabh then to a boy selected by her (mother).
Enter Jai (Purab Kohli), a friend with whom Naina had had a relationship before Rishabh walked into her life. Jai and Naina had been in bed together many times but when Naina had wanted him to marry her, he had developed cold feet and had walked out on her. He enters her life again on her 30th birthday. As days go by, Naina and Jai get close to one another. However, Naina is unable to forget Rishabh whom she loves madly. Now, Jai wants to marry Naina but she isn’t sure. Consequently, Jai leaves her.
Even as Naina’s life is in a mess, she is actually fired from her job. She is frustrated, confused, unhappy and doesn’t know what to do with her life. At one point, she even confronts Rishabh and his parents, pleading with them to not leave her in the lurch and hurling abuses at them for having cheated her. Then suddenly, Naina’s friend, Malini (Tillotama Shome), discovers the hidden writer in her. Malini and another friend, Ruksana (Jeneva Talwar), encourage Naina to give writing a novel a shot. There’s also a willing publisher, David (Anjum Rajab Ali). Meanwhile, Naina files a case of cheating against her company for having flicked her ad campaign.
Does Naina win the court case? Does she turn author? Does she get a chance to join her ad agency again? Does Rishabh come back into Naina’s life? Or does she opt for Jai? Answers to these questions are provided in the last part of the film.
Story and Screenplay
Alankrita Shrivastava has penned a story that is conceptually very clear. Her screenplay is also very well-written, which is creditable, more so considering the fact that this is her debut attempt. Having said that, it must be added that the drama holds appeal for only the city-based folk for several reasons: (i) a majority of the dialogues are spoken in English (the makers have taken care of this by dubbing the English dialogues in Hindi for the smaller centres where the dubbed version has been released); (ii) it is a woman-centric film and, what’s more, it deals with the problems of a woman who does not fit into the stereotype – she is single, lives alone in the city, sleeps with her boyfriends, smokes, uses four-letter words etc.; (iii) it has a difficult-to-understand English title (‘Turning 30’ is not a term used by non-English speaking people as often as, say, ‘hello’, ‘thank you’ or ‘sorry’).
For the city-based and class audiences, however, the film is an engrossing fare because it is a slice-of-life film and comes across as an honest attempt and a true-to-life drama. Naina’s character is very real – she is strong and independent, yet very vulnerable and emotional when it comes to matters of the heart. The film is a bit lengthy but the good part is that it doesn’t bore the viewer.
Star Performances
Gul Panag does a fabulous job as the main protagonist, Naina. She plays today’s working girl beautifully and lives her role, expressing her independence, carefree attitude, fighting spirit, frustrations, insecurities, jealousies and ability to bounce back just too well. Purab Kohli gets into the skin of his character and underplays excellently, just as is required. Sid Makkar is also good, making his presence felt. Jeneva Talwar lends wonderful support. Tillotama Shome leaves a mark. Ira Dubey is very natural in a special appearance. Bikramjeet Kanwarpal is fabulous as the spineless boss of Naina. Sameer Malhotra performs ably, and so does Satyadeep Mishra (as Ruksana’s husband, Sahil). Anita Kanwal, Samar Sarila (as Ranjeet), Rahul Singh and Anjum Rajab Ali (as publisher David) lend superb support.
Direction, Music & Editing
If Alankrita Shrivastava’s script shows her clarity of thought, her direction only adds to it. She shows promise in her maiden attempt. Music should’ve been better because hit songs would have made a world of a difference. The songs are fairly well-tuned (by Siddharth-Suhas) but they aren’t popular. ‘My kajra’ and the title track are racy numbers while ‘Sapney’ and ‘Tinka tinka’ have lyrical value too (Kumaar and Raam Goutam respectively). Akshay Singh’s cinematography and Santosh Mandal’s editing are appropriate. Dubbing (of the dubbed version) is nice.
The Last Word
On the whole, Turning 30!!! may not do too well commercially but it is a well-made film for the multiplex-going city-based audience. Better promotion would’ve helped.
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