Review: Naseeruddin Shah and Kalki’s ‘Waiting’ will make you re-think about life

Waiting is Anu Menon’s second directorial venture after her debut with 2012’s London, Paris, New York starring Aditi Rao Hydari and Ali Zafar. Both films are as different as night and day and yet they are refreshing and pleasant in their own ways. The film had its world premiere on December 11, 2015 at Dubai International Film festival and was well received by critics.  The film was also screened at the London Asian Film festival and Menon was awarded the Best Director Award at the event.

The film revolves around the unusual relationship between two people from different walks of life, who befriend each other in a hospital, while nursing their respective comatose spouses. The story of the film divulges into the themes of coping with grief and at the same time discovering hope. It is truly a tale of hope and letting go. 

In their first interaction, a bewildered Tara (Kalki Koechlin) looks around the hospital waiting room and spots Shiv (Naseeruddin Shah) scribbling notes on a paper. Tara is a recently married, aggressive, foul-mouthed, attractive, young woman. Her husband Rajat (Arjun Mathur) has just been in a near-fatal accident that sends him into a coma. Shiv on the other hand is a retired Professor, married to Pankaja (Suhasini Mani Ratnam) for forty years. Pankaja has been in coma for eight months.

Both of them are confined in a Cochin hospital hoping against hope that their respective spouses would be fine soon. Both are completely antagonistic individuals-she is modern and hails from the ever busy urban life of Mumbai, while he is a localite; she is well to do and he is debt  ridden because of the medical bills; she doesn’t know what long term relationships are and he is married for four decades; she is impatient and loses her nerve easily whereas he is calm (zen in her language); she lives and has adopted to the virtual world of social media, whereas he doesn’t even know what Twitter is; she doesn’t want to share the news of her accident to her immediate family but is unhappy at the lack of support from her social media friends, he is indifferent to the help  he receives from his neighbors and is a cynic of the medical fraternity.  Yet, there is one thing which is common between both-their love for their spouses.

Kalki and Naseeruddin are naturals and fit the roles to the tee. Her face speaks volumes and he hails wisdom in his expressions from top to toe. National award winning Malayalam film actor Suhasini and Arjun Mathur are likeable in their cameos. They convince you that their spouses would go to any length to save them. Rajat Kapoor as the doctor who tries to convince Shiv about the medical advances makes a short but remarkable appearance. 

There are a few unexplored angles e.g. that of Tara’s pained familial relationships. Apart from that, the film is as appealing as its star cast.

Thanks to the efforts of Menon, despite its gloomy theme, the mood of the film appears pleasant all the time.  The film touches a lot of topics- the agony of a severely ill patient’s family, the tough decisions that are supposed to be taken by them- Will they ever be able to forgive themselves if they allowed the person to die? Do they really care about the person or are being selfish in wanting them to stay? These thought provoking questions are left unanswered for the audiences as the protagonists discover their answers in the 1:38 minutes film.

Watch the film for its thought provoking plot and beautiful performances. It will surely make you re-think about life.

Reviewed by-Dolly Bolly