Trial Period is one film that doesn’t really know whether it should consider itself a kids’ movie or a proper romantic comedy. With a bizarre thought getting presented without much conviction and along with a ton of genre cliches, this predictable two-hour-long feel-good exercise is an instantly forgettable creation.
Ana is a Bengali single mother living with her kid, Romi, in Delhi. At one point, Romi demands that he needs a new Papa, and he wants Ana to get him a new one, just like how the neighborhood uncle orders stuff by seeing TV ads. Eventually, Ana gets a new Papa for Romi for a 30 days trial period. We see how the entry of Prajapati Dwivedi, aka PD, as the 30 days trial period, Papa changes things for that family in Aleya Sen’s Trail Period.
It is easy to exclaim, “What?!” reading the movie’s plot in the above paragraph. But actually, some of the great comedies we have seen in our childhood have originated from such bizarre thoughts. But the problem with Aleya’s movie is that the conviction part is fragile. The cheesy writing and the kind of predictable conflicts the film has makes it extremely underwhelming. Because of the failure of the writing to land the key plot element convincingly, everything that follows feels like an assembled cliche.
Manav Kaul has that innocence of a middle-class guy, which we have seen in Tumhari Sulu, and the Ajeeb Dastaan kind of positive aura is also there around this character. Despite the writing being very unimaginative about that character, Kaul’s signature charm makes PD a sweet and sensitive person. Genelia Deshmukh as Ana is fun to watch in those jovial bits. But the portrayal of the vulnerability feels a bit too strange, and the writing should be blamed for that to an extent. Zidane Braz, as Romi, performs the adamance and innocence of the child neatly on the screen. Shakti Kapoor, Sheeba Chadha, Gajraj Rao, and many more are in the star cast with forgettable characters.
It is okay to have a bizarre idea like a rental Papa be the core of your movie. But everything will crumble if you are in a hurry to create corny scenes before making the audience buy that idea. The moment the boy demands a new Papa, the whole script will unfold in front of you. The filmmaker’s challenge from that point is to make it either different from what the viewer predicted or make it even more entertaining than the audience anticipated. In the case of Trial Period, none of it is happening. The music department of the movie is giving its best to make the emotional moments deep. But the ultra-generic nature of this story just lets you down with its creative laziness.
There is a moment in the film where Ana asks PD to help her measure her dress. And PD comes with that 15 cm scale to measure. The staging of that scene is so bad that even Sooraj Barjatya would feel the cringe. The movie’s target audience is actually the kids of Romi’s age. For everyone else, it’s a challenge to not check your mobile while the movie streams on JioCinema.
The movie's target audience is actually the kids of Romi's age. For everyone else, it's a challenge to not check your mobile while the movie streams on JioCinema.
Green: Recommended Content
Orange: The In-Between Ones
Red: Not Recommended
