Give me a quirky little film by a new director and chances are I'm going to fall for it. A new voice and a new storytelling format - what more can you ask for?
It's what drew me to films like Hyderabad Blues, Jhankaar Beats, Dil Chahta Hai,
and Khosla Ka Ghosla among others.Which is why I've really been looking forward to this week's new release Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd by debutant director Reema Kagti.
Now this film's about a road trip actually, a bus journey to Goa that's taken by six honeymooning couples who're just about getting to know each other.
That's pretty much all I can tell you about this film, because that's pretty much there is to this film - I don't mean that in a negative sense, but clearly this is a character-driven story so if you're looking for a plot, or a conventional three-act structure then you're looking in the wrong place.
As the couples in this film start getting to know each other better, some pleasant, some unpleasant truths come tumbling out.
For us in the audience, watching this film unspool, what we're getting really is a character study, a glimpse at human nature - yes, that's really what this film is about. People, what they seem like on the outside, and what they really are on the inside.
What I enjoyed most about Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd were its characters.
Despite the fact that director Reema Kagti plays upon the oldest clichés and reinforces lots of stereotypes when she gives you such typical caricatures as the inseparable Parsi couple, the conservative Bengali husband or the very determined Punjabi bride, what you cannot deny is the fact that all these characters are relatable in some way or the other.
Of course, because this is a character-driven drama, it's up to the actors playing the leads to draw you into their lives in order to keep you engaged.
Abhay Deol and Minisha Lamba playing Aspi and Zara, the made-for-each-other Parsi couple, are exceptionally entertaining as they go from "oh they're so cute" to "god, they're so irritatingly perfect".
For years we've complained about Amisha Patel's theatrical, over-the-top kind of acting, but in this film that works in her favour since she's cast as a spoilt, talkative, dreamy-eyed romantic who can't stop fussing over her meek husband played by Karan Khanna.
Vikram Chatwal as the NRI who marries Sandhya Mridul for all the wrong reasons could do with some acting lessons, in fact he could take them from Sandhya herself who's really a fine actor.
Ranvir Shorey and Dia Mirza as the doomed Gujarati couple are first-rate but it's a pity they have such little screen time.
Pity because Ranvir just steals the show every moment that he's on screen and you can't seem to understand why they'd terminate his character so early in the story.
One of my favourite couples in the film are the Bengali newly-weds Kay Kay Menon and Raima Sen, perhaps the only couple who really go through a relationship arc in the film as they deal with insecurities and other personal issues and finally come out knowing each other much better.
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