Thaindian News

Udaan: On par with World Cinema’s best

Rating: 3.5 out of 5*

Starring: Introducing Rajat Barmecha, Ronit Roy, Ram Kapoor

Director: Vikramaditya Motwane

July 16 (Sampurn Wire): India’s official entry to the prestigious Cannes Film Festival this year, Udaan directed by debutante director Vikramaditya Motwane is an excellent coming of age movie that deserves to be watched by every teenager and their parents.

Rohan (Rajat Barmecha) studying at a boarding school for eight years is expelled from school after a fun and wild time out that has lead to a fiasco. He returns home to Jamshedpur to live with his strict father (Ronit Roy). He discovers that he has a half- brother (Aayan Boradia). His father however doesn’t appear happy to have him back. Rohan aspires to become a writer whereas his father forces him to work in his factory. Rohan loses all the independence he enjoyed during his school days. Life becomes extremely claustrophobic for Rohan and the only respite he finds is in his uncle (Ram Kapoor) and college senior (Anand Tiwari). What happens after Rohan makes his mind to break free from his father’s tyrant rules forms the rest of the plot.

Excellently written and directed by Vikramaditya Motwane the film deserves all the accolades it has been getting. Very rarely films are set nowadays in small town India and more rarely are they shot in a realistic manner. Motwane scores in here over it. The daily life after Rohan starts working in his dad’s factory is effectively captured. Amongst the impressive sequences are Rohan and college seniors’ gang picking up fights just for fun with strangers, Kanti Shah Ke Angoor sequence and the climactic run chase between Rohan and his father.

Amit Trivedi of Dev. D fame’s soulful music lifts the film to another level. Mahendra Shetty’s camerawork is very good. Sound designer Kunal Sharma also deserves special mention especially for the factory sound sequences.

Newcomer Rajat Barmecha is an outstanding talent to watch out for. Ronit Roy makes us wonder where he was for so many years and why he was wasting his amazing acting talent in Saas Bahu serials? Anand Tiwari and Manjyot Singh (last seen in Oye Lucky Lucky Oye) are very good. Ram Kapoor in his brief role is impressive and so is the kid Aayan Boradia.

Indian cinema is changing and it is because of talents like Motwane it is getting International acclaim. Just don’t miss Udaan if you want to experience what a world cinema experience is like.

–Sampurn Wire