Turning 30: Movie Review

Director: Alankrita Srivastava
Cast:Gul Panag, Purab Kohli, Siddharth Makkar
This calculated chick flick starts with a spinster who is on the verge of turning 30. By interval she turns 30 and by the end she turns 31, as the viewer figuratively feels to have spent two tedious years watching this slow and stretched film where practically nothing happens throughout.
Under the guise of Bridget Jones Diary, Turning 30 actually happens to be female version of Devdas.That’s because the film starts with breakup between a couple and, through the film, the girl is unable to get over it. Naina (Gul Panag) is unable to move on from her spilt-up with Rishabh (Siddharth Makkar). And though ex-flame Jai (Purab Kohli) coincidentally lands in her life around the same time, she is unable to make up her mind on who is she in love with till the end. However the audiences can certainly make up their mind, much in advance, that the narrative is going nowhere.
While initially one can relate to the heartbroken Naina’s yearning to win back Rishabh, subsequently her fixation is stretched to such an extent that you stop sympathizing with the crybaby. Not only is writer-director Alankrita Srivastava’s storytelling absolutely predictable from the word go, the screenplay becomes so repetitive after a point that you start finding the film repulsive. While one doesn’t expect a pioneering plot from a conventional chick-flick, you also don’t expect it to be lethargic and boring.
Naina is as much luckless on the professional front as in her personal life. Her supposed creative ad-campaigns are constantly taken over midways by her all-male superiors. The chauvinism seems contrived. Naina’s persistent philosophical monologues keep playing in the background. And when she is disillusioned with almost everything by the climax, the screenplay restores her individuality with the most clichéd option. Her verbose philosophies find favour with a publisher.
With much screen-time wasted on nothingness, every conflict is sorted in the last ten minutes. Naina has her book published. She wins a legal battle with her superiors. An abruptly guilt-ridden Rishabh, out of nowhere, comes back to her. Of course, no prizes for guessing who does Naina opt for as her life-partner. Man-made women power kaKya Kehna!
While it uses all chick-flick components like sagging breasts, padded bras, grey hair and hen party, Turning 30 essentially ends up only being a sob-story of a female who can’t recover from a breakup. The intentional inclusion of the lesbians and gays in the narrative and use of bookish English in the dialogues adds to the pretentiousness of the film.
While Gul Panag puts an uninhibited act and emotes effectively, her one-dimensional characterization lets her down. Jevena Talwar is fine but Tilottama Shome (Monsoon Wedding) is somewhat sidelined. Both male leads Purab Kohli and Siddharth Makkar get limited scope.
Turning 30 is more of a monotonous look on midlife-crisis than a coming-of-age cinema.
Verdict: Average