Just watched Ranbir Kapoors stunning performance in the Indian Blockbuster from 2009 : “Wake up Sid”. Wake up Sid is comparable to  “3 idiots” which I recently reviwed in the sense that the two films have a common message: it is time for independence of Indian youth, Indian youth has the right to choose their own life paths.

The way I see it, Bollywood films often serves as an entry point to societal critque. These two blockbusters of 2009 are contributing to a change of attitudes among the film consuming Middle class. Wake up Sid features Sid, a young coellge graduate (Ranbir Kapoor) whose father expects him to take over the family business once he graduated. A classical scenario among Indian youths. Sid is a fun loving guy, his father’s credit cards pays for Sid’s amount of fun, he spends his time doing all but studying: he likes clubbing, drinking, he drives a nice car, and a servant serves him breakfast in bed every day. But when Sid lets his father down by not engaging in the family business, he is cut off – and left with nothing of he has former taken for granted. Luckily for Sid, he has struck up an acquaintance with Aisha (Konkona Sen Sharma), a new girl in the city. She is 8 years senior to Sid, and quite his opposite – Aisha’s goal i life is to attain independence. Therefor she moves to Mumbai as a single 27 year old writer – looking for her dream job in the field of  journalism. Once Sid left his parents safe haven, he crashes at Aisha’s place.

Konkona and Ranbir plays their characters brilliantly throughout the film, which in itself is colorful, fresh and uplifting. The only thing I can complain about is the boring boring soundtrack, other than that, this is a likable film! I completely love the ending, puppy love is shown with a warm hug, not a sleazy extended kiss-scene. It is also bold and brilliant to show a love story between a world vise female who take charge of her own  life and a younger male who clearly admires his lady-love on several levels. Girl power and independence is the the main concepts of Wake up Sid. It is a film about growing up, waking up, leave college ad gain your own grounds and meanwhile friendship develops into love.

This entry was posted on lördag, januari 23rd, 2010 at 19:07 and is filed under India, Popular culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.