Dear Gauri and Alia - Wow!
Bollywood movies are coming of age, it seems, if the latest offerings are anything to go by. "Nil Batte Sannata", "Neerja", "Kapoor and Sons" and now Dear Zindagi. Slice of life films with a solid story-line, believable situations and stellar acting. Gauri Shinde, who had earlier directed the gem "English Vinglish", comes up with another winner, this time focusing her lens on the trials and tribulations of a yuppie cinematographer, grappling with issues like parental neglect in childhood and commitment phobia at present. The whole gamut of fears that plague the "now" generation is highlighted in "Dear Zindagi". Loneliness, addiction to technology and the resultant isolation in actual life, the need to always act in a certain way, emotional vacuum, fear of building relationships, the protagonist faces all these and more. The film is path breaking in the sense that for the first time, the confused and vulnerable heroine is s