Director: Gauri Shinde

2016 saw a trend in movies, they talked about topics that were considered a taboo in our Indian society.- Consent, sexuality, troubled families, drug menace and now depression. Dear Zindagi is a step in the right direction. It talks about problems, it talks about depression and mental health, a subject that we need to address seriously.

Alia Bhatt is a talented cinematographer waiting for that big break in Bollywood. While she has a fairly successful career, she clearly wants to do more. This is entwined with her twisted love life, three handsome suitors but none that she truly sees herself with. She has a fabulous group of friends who are the only solace in her life. Things take a turn when she has to relocate to Goa to her parents and has to make peace with that fact. Series of events later, we see her finally opening up to Jehangir Khan (Shah Rukh Khan), a psychologist who thinks out of the box as far as his therapy is considered. Slowly and steadily they break the mold and Alia finds herself confiding in him about why she is the way she is.

While the movie isn’t ground breaking in spite of the sensitive subject, it still has a lot of good scenes and dialogues. Alia Bhatt is phenomenal, her performance looks effortless. She fits the bill of a young, irritated, passionate, feeble minded and confused girl who knows that she needs help. Khan is amazing in his character as the mature therapist who likes ‘fixing broken things’. If not entirely, one will connect with Alia’s character in some places. The indecisiveness in relationships, the problems of an independent woman living alone in the city, parents not agreeing with your career choices, relatives wanting you to ‘settle down’- all these in addition to your own personal problems are what makes Dear Zindagi so relatable.

Verdict:  Like Alia’s Zindagi, the movie also has its flaws but overall it is beautiful.

Stars: 3 and half