Tumhari Sulu

Tumhari Sulu is an awesome film on many levels. It has an outstanding leading lady living the character and also a content with soul enriched in humor and emotions. With subtle references of feminism getting depicted convincingly, Tumhari Sulu was one film that made me happy after a long while. With each and every character making a mark, this one is an extremely cheerful cinema.

Sulochana is a housewife. She is a 12th fail and is married to Ashok who works in a textile company. Sulu has this obsession to do odd things and she takes real pride in all her small achievements. With this impulsive nature Sulu once decided to audition for becoming an RJ and she eventually becomes this RJ who handles the late night show where she will sensuously converse with people who would call her. The movie shows us the impact of this job in her life.

The realistically rendered scenes in this movie are so easy that you instantly connect with the movie. Suresh Triveni gets the texture of a middle class family with clear detailing. The theme here has this basic idea of letting a woman do something she is good at without judging her for that. And the conflict here is justifiably the moral ambiguity inside the character’s head. Without a doubt one can predict that the theme has abundant scope for humor. But there is one particular scene in the movie where a widower calls Sulu and the way she handled that call was a delight to watch. That scene is pitched before all the issues begin in the story and that makes it easy for the audience to root for Sulu when she gets criticized.

Suresh Triveni captures the scenes with at most honesty.  The humor and the melodrama are never overdone. The audition scene and some of the scenes that followed were outrageously hilarious. Like I said in the beginning, the feministic views of the film get depicted through simple elements. The cab driver is a woman, the police officer is a woman and even the radio channel is lead by women. In a way Suresh Triveni shows the fact that women can be good at these positions. The conflict here has multiple layers including moral ambiguity to financial insecurity.  The frames were good. The cuts had a nice rhythm. The music was also nice.

Vidya Balan is undeniably the rock star of this film. She adds so much of naivety along with a thirst to excel in her depiction of Sulu. Her laughs, the way she modulates her voice, how she talks to Neha Dhupia’s character in the climax and the reaction she gives when she gets to see her son in a scene in that last portion and many other instances in this film show us why she is a fabulous actor. Manav Kaul who has mostly got negative characters was really good as Ashok. The cool shades and the insecurities of that struggling husband were depicted pretty neatly by him. Neha Dhupia and RJ Malishka were good in their roles. Full marks to Vijay Mourya for not laughing in that hilarious audition scene. Abhishek Sharma as Pranav and Trupti Kumar as the woman cab driver also manage to create an impression.

Tumhari Sulu is a fabulous film which you might end up watching again and again. It is high on humor, energy, sensibility and most importantly positivity. I laughed out loud, had teary eyes at certain points and there was a wide spread smile when the film ended. Take a bow Vidya Balan.

Rating: 4/5