Originally posted on www.passionforcinema.com on October 6, 2009
Wake up Sid is my kinda movie. Only if at the end Sid would have told Aisha “You had me at your first e-mail”, this is the movie which I would have made. I was reluctant to write anything about this film, because I FELT the movie as it was and I was sure I wouldn’t be able to articulate my love for this movie truthfully. And then I also realized that analyzing this movie would be a disservice to the whole journey that I experienced while watching this film. The analysis wouldn’t mirror or reflect what I felt at a given moment. For example, the scene in which Aisha calls Sid to her house at 11:50 pm. Sid playfully asks “itni raat gaye bulaya! Chakkar kya hai?” Aisha, with a hint of embarrassment, replies “tum muje paagal samjoge, lekin dus minute mein mera birthday hai, aur maine aaj tak apne birthday ki raat par akeli nahi rahi hun.” If I were to analyse, this moment speaks volumes. Aisha and Sid have become quite good friends in the past couple of weeks, but of course they haven’t exchanged their birthdays yet. She has come to the city to lead an independent life, and she is enjoying her independence. But birthdays are different. Many people become anxious right from the day before their birthdays. And the eve of your birthday is always filled with an expectant restlessness. It’s not easy for a girl to call a guy (who is just a friend ;) ) on that eve and tell him that it’s her birthday. It’s embarrassing for her and the guy too. It’s a moment they both want to get over with. Now, when I watched this in the movie, I felt my heart warming up to these folks. I just felt so friggin good. I felt as if I had written this scene and it played out for me unknowingly. I know the follow-up to this moment was a cheesy montage of Sid preparing a bread jam cake with a matchstick lit up on top of it. But then it was indeed a very sweet thing to do in limited time. It was cheesy but I really didn’t mind it.
Analysing Wake up Sid will unearth clichés and cheese spread all around. It is after all about a rich spoilt irresponsible guy maturing in life. Coming of age stories are as predictable as sports films. And they have ‘feel-good’ written all over it. But as long as ‘feel-good’ is kept within cringe (diabetic) limits, these stories unmistakably leave you all warm and fuzzy. This film did just that to me. There are no profound realizations, no profound lessons to be learnt, just a simple journey of 2 people who meet each other at crossroads of their lives.
Aisha calls up Sid:
“Sid, I got the job!!! Whoaooo!!!
“Oh!!! That’s amazing!!! Congratulations…. Aisha, I’m a bit busy. I’ll call u later”
They hang up. And there is Sid, anxious and praying for his final year results. He makes his way through to the results display board. His friends pass and he fails. All the care freeness dilutes in seconds. Here we don’t see a rich spoilt Sid, who doesn’t need to give a damn to the results. We see a guy who failed in his exams and has to face a close friend who passed on border line, and also go home and face his parents. He looks like you, he looks like me, he looks like any other helpless guy. Here we realize that the movie is not just about a rich guy, it’s about every one of us who studied only on the last day of the exams, still hoping to pass. The film from hereon emerges out from its initial premise and becomes a universal film.
When I (used to) sit down to write a script, most of the times a fantasy love story pours out. I say fantasy not in the magical, larger than life sense, but in a sense of my dream journey with a girl, in a sense of how I would see myself falling in love. And then I see Wake up Sid. The journey of Sid and Aisha would be my ideal (in the filmy sense) relationship journey. Sid admires and respects Aisha and develops a soft corner for her. In my words, he has fallen for her. But there he is, all ears to Aisha and her dream partner profile. Aisha cautiously and quite frankly knocks him down with truth, “I want a man…. You are still a boy!” Respect and admiration is what Aisha doesn’t have for Sid. So falling in love is out of question. But then Sid moves in with Aisha and they develop a very sweet platonic relationship. There are moments of fury for Aisha, but then this film is about good people, simple and uncomplicated. Sid doesn’t see his scattered things as a mess and doesn’t feel any necessity to clean it up, but then when he sees the broken plate pieces with omelet pieces licking the floor, he feels the irk of seeing mess. He cleans up the plate and omelet and then also cleans up his scattered things. And that night while waiting for Aisha to calm down and return home, he feels the need to gather himself and stop being a jerk. Now, if you ponder, this is supposed to be THE turning point of the film. Sid finally wakes up. But its handling is far from sweeping. It’s handled unlike anything I’ve seen before. There is no major life changing incident thrown in. And why should there be any, because what he is going through is not some kinda big deal. Most of the people go through that and it’s normal. People naturally progress out of that phase and life goes on. And life went for Sid. Luckily (after all it’s a pickchur) he gets a chance as an intern to assist a pro photographer, and Sid proves his worth. Good for him. The bigger issues here are his homecoming and his relationship with Aisha.
(Reference: Namesake) If I try to articulate what Gogol actually felt when his father dies, and why does he shave his head for the last rites or why does he start reading ‘The Overcoat’, I will fail miserably. I was just immensely moved. I just felt that it was what anyone would do. What Wake up Sid does in the homecoming part of the film is that it tries to articulate that feeling of a guy’s love for his parents. The guy has always been at loggerheads with his parents, but when you come back home, you just feel back home. You feel immense love and respect for your mother, your father. No reasons can justify that love. large_rachel-wedding(Reference: Rachel Getting married) When Kym returns to her sister Rachel all hurt, what does Rachel do? She gives her sister a nice bath even before she herself gets ready. In Wake up Sid, Ayan Mukherjee tries to give reasons for this love and respect. Mom speaks in English because she wants to befriend him. His love for photography has trickled down in him from his father. There exactly where the film falls short and doesn’t rise above ‘see.. that’s so touching’ level. But seeing how the whole premise was setup, Wake up Sid just couldn’t have reached the Namesake levels. And if Ayan Mukherjee hadn’t articulated, it would have become plain bland and boring. So within the milieu of the film the homecoming scenes work pretty decently. But I would any day prefer the father-son phone conversation from Lakshya. That was simple and super moving.
Ayan Mukherjee comes across as a normal simple good guy. He is probably an adolescent Farhan Akhtar. The heights to which DCH and Lakshya rise, Wake up Sid doesn’t even try to. It has a very utopian, pure outlook of the world. And that’s good in a way. It makes you feel good about life. People come to cinemas to feel good, so there is no way this film can be looked down upon just for its simple uncomplicated approach to movie making. Am I being too defensive?? May be. Coz I truly feel this is my movie and after reading all the negative comments on the film, I finally decided to write this post.
Wake up Sid is my kinda movie. Only if at the end Sid would have told Aisha “You had me at your first e-mail”, this is the movie which I would have made. I was reluctant to write anything about this film, because I FELT the movie as it was and I was sure I wouldn’t be able to articulate my love for this movie truthfully. And then I also realized that analyzing this movie would be a disservice to the whole journey that I experienced while watching this film. The analysis wouldn’t mirror or reflect what I felt at a given moment. For example, the scene in which Aisha calls Sid to her house at 11:50 pm. Sid playfully asks “itni raat gaye bulaya! Chakkar kya hai?” Aisha, with a hint of embarrassment, replies “tum muje paagal samjoge, lekin dus minute mein mera birthday hai, aur maine aaj tak apne birthday ki raat par akeli nahi rahi hun.” If I were to analyse, this moment speaks volumes. Aisha and Sid have become quite good friends in the past couple of weeks, but of course they haven’t exchanged their birthdays yet. She has come to the city to lead an independent life, and she is enjoying her independence. But birthdays are different. Many people become anxious right from the day before their birthdays. And the eve of your birthday is always filled with an expectant restlessness. It’s not easy for a girl to call a guy (who is just a friend ;) ) on that eve and tell him that it’s her birthday. It’s embarrassing for her and the guy too. It’s a moment they both want to get over with. Now, when I watched this in the movie, I felt my heart warming up to these folks. I just felt so friggin good. I felt as if I had written this scene and it played out for me unknowingly. I know the follow-up to this moment was a cheesy montage of Sid preparing a bread jam cake with a matchstick lit up on top of it. But then it was indeed a very sweet thing to do in limited time. It was cheesy but I really didn’t mind it.
Analysing Wake up Sid will unearth clichés and cheese spread all around. It is after all about a rich spoilt irresponsible guy maturing in life. Coming of age stories are as predictable as sports films. And they have ‘feel-good’ written all over it. But as long as ‘feel-good’ is kept within cringe (diabetic) limits, these stories unmistakably leave you all warm and fuzzy. This film did just that to me. There are no profound realizations, no profound lessons to be learnt, just a simple journey of 2 people who meet each other at crossroads of their lives.
Aisha calls up Sid:
“Sid, I got the job!!! Whoaooo!!!
“Oh!!! That’s amazing!!! Congratulations…. Aisha, I’m a bit busy. I’ll call u later”
They hang up. And there is Sid, anxious and praying for his final year results. He makes his way through to the results display board. His friends pass and he fails. All the care freeness dilutes in seconds. Here we don’t see a rich spoilt Sid, who doesn’t need to give a damn to the results. We see a guy who failed in his exams and has to face a close friend who passed on border line, and also go home and face his parents. He looks like you, he looks like me, he looks like any other helpless guy. Here we realize that the movie is not just about a rich guy, it’s about every one of us who studied only on the last day of the exams, still hoping to pass. The film from hereon emerges out from its initial premise and becomes a universal film.
When I (used to) sit down to write a script, most of the times a fantasy love story pours out. I say fantasy not in the magical, larger than life sense, but in a sense of my dream journey with a girl, in a sense of how I would see myself falling in love. And then I see Wake up Sid. The journey of Sid and Aisha would be my ideal (in the filmy sense) relationship journey. Sid admires and respects Aisha and develops a soft corner for her. In my words, he has fallen for her. But there he is, all ears to Aisha and her dream partner profile. Aisha cautiously and quite frankly knocks him down with truth, “I want a man…. You are still a boy!” Respect and admiration is what Aisha doesn’t have for Sid. So falling in love is out of question. But then Sid moves in with Aisha and they develop a very sweet platonic relationship. There are moments of fury for Aisha, but then this film is about good people, simple and uncomplicated. Sid doesn’t see his scattered things as a mess and doesn’t feel any necessity to clean it up, but then when he sees the broken plate pieces with omelet pieces licking the floor, he feels the irk of seeing mess. He cleans up the plate and omelet and then also cleans up his scattered things. And that night while waiting for Aisha to calm down and return home, he feels the need to gather himself and stop being a jerk. Now, if you ponder, this is supposed to be THE turning point of the film. Sid finally wakes up. But its handling is far from sweeping. It’s handled unlike anything I’ve seen before. There is no major life changing incident thrown in. And why should there be any, because what he is going through is not some kinda big deal. Most of the people go through that and it’s normal. People naturally progress out of that phase and life goes on. And life went for Sid. Luckily (after all it’s a pickchur) he gets a chance as an intern to assist a pro photographer, and Sid proves his worth. Good for him. The bigger issues here are his homecoming and his relationship with Aisha.
(Reference: Namesake) If I try to articulate what Gogol actually felt when his father dies, and why does he shave his head for the last rites or why does he start reading ‘The Overcoat’, I will fail miserably. I was just immensely moved. I just felt that it was what anyone would do. What Wake up Sid does in the homecoming part of the film is that it tries to articulate that feeling of a guy’s love for his parents. The guy has always been at loggerheads with his parents, but when you come back home, you just feel back home. You feel immense love and respect for your mother, your father. No reasons can justify that love. large_rachel-wedding(Reference: Rachel Getting married) When Kym returns to her sister Rachel all hurt, what does Rachel do? She gives her sister a nice bath even before she herself gets ready. In Wake up Sid, Ayan Mukherjee tries to give reasons for this love and respect. Mom speaks in English because she wants to befriend him. His love for photography has trickled down in him from his father. There exactly where the film falls short and doesn’t rise above ‘see.. that’s so touching’ level. But seeing how the whole premise was setup, Wake up Sid just couldn’t have reached the Namesake levels. And if Ayan Mukherjee hadn’t articulated, it would have become plain bland and boring. So within the milieu of the film the homecoming scenes work pretty decently. But I would any day prefer the father-son phone conversation from Lakshya. That was simple and super moving.
Ayan Mukherjee comes across as a normal simple good guy. He is probably an adolescent Farhan Akhtar. The heights to which DCH and Lakshya rise, Wake up Sid doesn’t even try to. It has a very utopian, pure outlook of the world. And that’s good in a way. It makes you feel good about life. People come to cinemas to feel good, so there is no way this film can be looked down upon just for its simple uncomplicated approach to movie making. Am I being too defensive?? May be. Coz I truly feel this is my movie and after reading all the negative comments on the film, I finally decided to write this post.
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