The Window: Review, Cast, Story, Director

Film: The Window

Cast: Amit Kumar Vashisht, Teena Singh, Preeti Hansraj Sharma, Preveen Maheshwari, Atul Hanwat, Sayoni Mishra, Ravi Patil, Guddu Dewangan, Raman Bala, Aman Wardhan, Dhruv Tiwari

Director: V K Choudhary

Rating: * * ½

In the opening voiceover itself you get a gist of what this film is going to be about. Delineating a deconstruction of the traditional script structure, the protagonist talks about how he wants to be different from the run-of-the-mill mainstream set. But of course, conventional wisdom and economics don’t permit him to be so flamboyant and careful about his craft.

The pressures of modern day life and expectations from the family don’t allow for a wild and unhinged creative process. As a result, the uncompromising protagonist feels caged by the world around him and that’s where this film basically takes us – into the recesses of his mind. While the events outlined here may not be entirely predictable, there’s little comprehension of what transpires on screen. The attempt here was obviously to film a shocker but the plausibility, tension and thrill are missing.

A film set in Delhi, this one has a wannabe film scriptwriter Lekh Kapoor (Amit Kumar Vashisht) who has abandoned his secure job and family – wife Ayesha (Preeti Hansraj Sharma) and Mother (Saloni Mishra) while also alienating himself from his younger brother Nikhil (Atul Hanwat) and estranged father (Dhruv Tiwari), struggling for five years without making a breakthrough in Bollywood. The only offer he’s got so far, through his friend Irfan (Praveen Maheshwari) is the one by a mainstream producer who wants to remake a Telugu hit film in Hindi.

The narrative basically goes haywire trying to establish connect with the writer’s overactive imagination, his troubles with ex-wife and his own private demons regarding his parents’ marriage- his mother’s manipulative nature and his father’s roving eye. There’s a suggestion of mental illness here but no clear understanding of the vagaries of the human mind and the struggle to stay sane. The second half is basically riddled in imaginary loops of thought that stymie his progression in the ‘real’ world.

The title The Window alludes to the writer’s perception of the world outside his self-embraced prison of frustration and guilt. The actors perform with sincerity, but the script and direction fail to establish a strong connect with the viewer-as a result there’s really no empathy for the writer’s plight. The plodding self-consciousness of the narrative doesn’t allow for much connect here!