Udaan A Review

Rohan is just another 'average' kid, rebellious and a dreamer. After being expelled from his boarding school, he has to live with his authoritarian, oppressive father in the steel town of Jamshedpur. It is obvious that the apple has fallen as far from the tree as possible. The father runs a small steel plant and wants his son to be an engineer and enjoys defeating him in running, while the son sits on railway tracks, under a tree, by the bed of a river, composing poetry. Senior Singh cannot digest the fact that his son dreams of being a writer. So he makes his rules clear to both Rohan and his younger step-brother Arjun. Rohan rebels in his own little ways, but has to concede to his fathers demands. When he comes to know that the reason for his step-brother being hospitalised is a beating from his father, he seethes with rage, but can do nothing. Yet, in the end you cannot hold a rebellious spirit down and Rohan breaks free from his shackles. Udaan will not only resonate with those who had a troubled childhood, but with anyone who has faced oppression, or ever nurtured dreams. The film is an analogy of life and of a nation's social ethos. Another film that came out earlier this year, Leaving Home, a documentary about the band Indian Ocean, resonated with the same middle-class aspiration that Udaan dabbles with. There too the band members detail how they had had to fight their own parents and the system to become artists. The cast gives a stellar performance. Rajat Barmecha as Rohan is a precious find, while Ronit Roy as his father reminds you of some other social-villains of world cinema. Looking at his maturely restrained performance, you wonder what he is doing wasting time overacting for television. Yet, the winner is director Vikramaditya Motwane. Therefore in the end, when Rohan outruns his father, you cannot help but celebrate and wish Bollywood too comes out of the shackles of its own clichs and open its arms to directors like Motwane. If nothing else the fact that even after seven months, Bollywood has not had a single hit in 2010 should be sign enough for them to adopt the much needed newness. Perhaps it is too much to expect. But then, all the best things in the world exist because of these individual rebellions, from people who have turned their backs to conventions to create their own dreams. Udaan is both a celebration and a triumph of that rebellious spirit.