Dear Zindegi - May be a slice of your Life. Review on Dear Zindagi

#DearZindegi: Half an hour into Dear Zindegi, there is a scene where Kaira and her friends are jogging in a park and a love struck couple bump into Kaira. She reacts hysterically. One moment you wonder why and the next minute you realize that’s how probably anyone fighting a battle within would have reacted. And that is the essence of Dear Zindegi. The journey is personal, very personal. The scars are for real, beneath the superficial surface resides the fear, the fear of being rejected. And that fear has created a strong wall of resistance, which the outside world can’t penetrate.

Now it is the responsibility of the writer, director to make the audience feel that inner struggle. And Gauri Shinde has been able to do justice to that. The writing which initially seemed to have rough edges around it, may actually been done intentionally to portray the journey of kaira. The slow first half makes all the sense, when post interval we get an opportunity to delve deep into Kaira’s life, her past, her longing for love, her fear of rejection. Be it Shashi Godbole in English Vinglish or Kaira in Dear Zindegi, Gauri Shinde’s female protagonists are always independent, full of aspiration and yet vulnerable. While Shashi was endearing, here we have Kaira who is cantankerous.

Breaking that outside resistance and understanding Kaira’s psychology is not easy. But then Shahrukh’s Dr. Jahangir Khan, the therapist, does what he does, charms his way through Kaira’s psyche and the audiences’ heart. Shahrukh light up every frame with his charisma, but then Dear Zindegi would not have been half of what it is without that young, magical Alia Bhatt. She plays a complex character with remarkable ease. She holds up every second of that long scene where she breaks down. Hemanti Sarkar’s editing is crisp and Laxman Utekar’s cinematography does justice to a picturesque Goa. And of course the casting is a masterstroke.

Yes the film at times gets preachy and some of the banters which could have been fun actually end up being hollow. It also tries to touch upon too many issues. But then overall Dear Zindegi does have a therapeutic effect. And since it is a season of quotes, let me quote Dr. Khan “Everything that’s broken can be fixed”. So go fix your past, watch a slice of Kaira’s life, who knows it may well be a slice from your own life. I will go out with 3 out of 5 for a journey that was quite personal.