MOVIE REVIEW: Tere Sang

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Film: Teree Sang (Drama)
Cast: Ruslaan Mumtaz, Sheena Shahabadi, Rajat Kapoor, Satish Kaushik
Direction: Satish Kaushik
Duration: 2 hours 11 minutes

After a couple years of break young actor Ruslaan Mumtaz is again make an come back with TEREE SANG, which is directed by Tere naam fame Satish Kaushik.

Naturally, when a film maker brings you a film on this issue, you look forward to a script that not only dissects the problem, but also talks about social acceptance and suggests ways of coping with it. After all, covert abortions aren't the only solution, specially in a country that treats abortion as illegal.

Fifteen year old Mahi (Sheena) is going to be a mommy, and seventeen year old Kukoo aka Kabir (Ruslaan) a daddy. The central idea has been stolen from ‘Juno’, bittersweet indie Hollywood hit about teenage pregnancy and parenthood and responsibility. If only Satish Kaushik had retained more of the honesty of the original, ‘Tere Sang’ would have been a revolutionary Hindi film.

Even if the conception is less than immaculate, it’s lumped on too much champagne: it’s a starry night, the ‘kidults’ are in a camp, they get high and they do the thing – the camera stays decorously out of the tent, all we see are shadows merging. The same confusion colours the film: should it present the first pair of teenage Indian kids who have sex, with the girl pushing, and the boy pulling? Or should it soft-soap everything?

The words ‘pregnancy’ and ‘abortion’ are mentioned only for form’s sake. No consequences are explored, and a terrific opportunity to say something relevant on such an important issue is lost.

Kaushik cops out majorly. Mahi is like that—attention-seeking, looking-for-love-- only because she gets no attention from her ever-busy parents (Rajat and Neena), not because she is a hormonally-charged fifteen-going-on-sixteen willing lass.

Instead of throwing up his hands, Kabir is determined to take care of his baby, and will do anything-- from hauling bricks to gas cylinders-- to make ends meet while on an idyllic retreat to a hilly cottage. The parents are against them, so the only option is to run away, see?

In the most improbable twist of all the improbable twists in the film, Mahi’s outraged father is forced into defending his daughter in court. ‘Yeh sab sirf meri galati hai’, he says piously, as the judge (Anupam Kher) looks on in befuddlement.
The best interludes in the film feature Ruslaan’s plebian parents played with spirited earthiness by Satish Kaushik and Sushmita Mukherjee . Their life in the crusty dusty Old Delhi lanes are authentically recreated. In contrast the female protagonist’s world is awkward and cheaply stylized.
But don't be totally disappointed, because there is the first half too. Now this one's a breezy take on teenage romance which draws its charm from the performances. If rich girl Sheena and poor boy Ruslaan are perfect as the pair of young lovers, then their parents are picture perfect too. Satish Kaushik and Sushmita Mukherjee are adorable as the old Delhi couple who may not have the moolah but do have a surplus of love and affection for their son, Ruslaan. Rajat Kapoor and Neena Gupta, on the other hand, are the archetypal arrogant upper middle class couple who prefer to leave their daughter with butlers and nannys, being hard-pressed for time. It's the class confrontation between auto rickshaw driver Satish Kaushik and high-profile lawyer Rajat Kapoor that makes for some interesting moments, with the actors slipping into their roles with elan.
It is not like hoolywood film "JUNO", ITS A WASTE OF TIME .............ITS BETTER TO WAIT FOR NEXT WEEK WHERE SHAHID KAPOOR'S kaminey will hit the screen.