Its 2:30AM and am not sleeping, there are two reasons. One, its Friday night  and who the hell sleeps on Friday night! Second, I went out to see the movie Wake Up Sid and have come back and cant wait to blog on that!

Cinemax, 10:45PM show and am still feeling as fresh as 5AM breeze in forest on banks of a river in mountains. Credit goes to Karan Johar, for a change. Wake Up Sid is as refreshing as a lemonade and as cool as a cucumber. The story is very well 21st century and urban without ever getting ‘sexy’ or ‘adult’ as Yash Raj’s films. I could not help to notice the similarities in performance and music style with Lakshya movie (whose first half is very very fresh and crisp and similar).

When at 8:30PM today my friend told me that he was going for a movie, I had no idea what was there in store, and movie came out to be ‘Wake up Sid’. We left by 9:20 as packed my stuff from Gym, throwing myself in his car with my backpack still on. We raced through the troughs and crests of Banjara Hills Road no.36 to hit Cinemax looking for food inside cafeteria there. A little good news after months and months of gloomy news had me perked up already for the night. Ladies in the eatery there looked finely dressed and two faces just caught my attention for such cute were they! Wearing IIM Indore shirt gifted to me by my friend I sat down with my friend once we got the pranthas we had ordered. Just then I hear a feminine voice address me asking if I was from Indore. I take a look and there stands one of those pretty faces; Boy! she was beautiful! As I clarified that I was from FMS Delhi and the shirt was from my friend only. the simple nods of the glowing face just made the day/night. Human, aren’t we!

wake-up-sidThe opening shot of the mobie looks so similar to our story, trying to read night out, trying till an hour or two, then hit for food/laptop/net etc and spend crucial 2 hours there, coming back to study at 3/4AM and deciding its better to sleep and study tomorrow. When the results would come, we would decide that next time onwards we will study on regular basis from very start, but then that day never does come and plans are made, scrapped and sublimed.

I really liked acting of Ranbir, it made the evident harsh truths so easy to come out. And the credit here goes to debutant director, Ayan Mukerji. There’s a subtlety with which he repairs the relationship between Sid and his mother (Supriya Pathak). The distance between the two is born out of the different cultures the two belong to. She is uneducated, he is westernised and the twain don’t meet. There’s a grave dimension to the Punjabi mother who tries to speak English with her son, even though it is pretty awful, hoping that it will make her a friend of him as his other friends whom he talk to in English. It’s grave because we know it’s so real, we see it all around us.

Even when Sid ruffles up Ayesha’s place and when she is upset for a reason, it does not get melodramatic, as she doesn’t intend to make him feel guilt from inside, as melodramatic women would do. Instead it is as smooth and plain as a chocolate bar. And Sid’s animated T shirts with perky colors pep the screen up.

Neatly lensed, the movie looks at Mumbai — with love and affection. The picturisation is very vivid and colorful. The painting of Ayesha’s home, the interiors of Mumbai magazine the leads are working for and the  colorful paintings of areas around Ayesha’s home add an array of colors to the story. Amit Trivedi’s Iktara, a song filled with an unbearable lightness of being, keeps the promise made from songs of Dev D. Songs make the movie soar; they help us look inside the head and mood of Sid and Aisha and help carry the story forward.

Actually, Wake Up Sid is a slice of life film. It’s not merely real in concept, but has also been told most realistically, so much so that you can’t help but draw parallels with your own life or with someone you know. There are so many things I have done myself which Sid does, so once the movie ended there was a lightness in the mind and a big smile on the face. While we moved to go back from the cinema (it was already 1:30AM), I wondered if I will again find those Indore people! As my friend went to loo, I just stood near stairs lost in self. After some time I just turned around and saw the Pretty Face. As the I started walking slowly towards their group, the sweet music filled the mind inside me. Just when I was going to approach them, a voice says “Lets go”. It was my friend who had come back from loo, suddenly the music stops, and I look between the two and know what needs to be done. Still next moment I am stepping down the stairs, walking back to his car with mixed emotions. Still appreciating the freshness of the movie, we cozied ourselves in the car, as the speaker stared blurting out the appealing title song of Wake up Sid. It was time to wake up, go home and sleep.

Note: Some truths have been dramatized for intended hue.