Review Summer 2007 hindi movie Film bollywood

Movie
Summer 2007
Director
Suhail Tatari
Cast
Sikander Kher, Gul Panag, Uvika Chowdhary, Arjan Bajwa, Ashutosh Rana


Quite often, a burning issue that makes headlines also makes it onto the big screen. Summer 2007, directed by Suhail Tatari, projects the disturbing issue of farmers’ suicides. The intentions of the filmmakers should be lauded, but there's a hitch—though the film highlights the issue quite effectively (albeit in patches), it offers no solution to the crisis. Instead, it focuses on the 'awakening' of careless and carefree youth, a la Rang De Basanti.
Moreover, director Suhail Tatari seems to have been so involved in the script that he didn’t know when to apply the brakes. The long three-hour movie tries to pack in too many sub-plots at one go. There's hardly any respite in the second hour and you actually want to scream, 'Ab bas bhi karo yaar'.

In a nutshell, Summer 2007 has an engaging first half, but goes haywire in the second (marathon) hour. At best it will appeal to a tiny section of intellectuals. There's no hope otherwise!

Five medical students, representative of the urban youth of today, are brought face to face with the harsher realities of life when they land up in one of the most deprived villages of Maharashtra. Their rural posting turns into a journey of soul-searching where they are forced to confront their apathy and fears.

Before they can flee, they are sucked into the whirlpool and each of them undergo a catharsis. In the end, they have to make a choice—do they leave the mess as they had found it or do they get involved?

The film has its heart in the right place, but the scripting lets it down. The director succeeds in involving the viewer in the lives of the kids—the scenes at the medical college, their tryst with politics, their decision to spend a month in a village in Vidarbha—but problems surface in the post-interval portions. The focus shifts from lack of medical facilities in rural India to the power games of moneylenders, to the protagonist turning conscientious citizen, to a love story and, finally, to naxalites!

Tatari should've focused on the core issue and tightened the script. The editing is loose and the music is a sore point. Ideally, the film shouldn’t have had songs.

To give credit where's it's due, the cast’s performance is the film’s saving grace. Sikander is evolving into a fine actor—a complete natural who handles the most complex of scenes with remarkable ease. Gul Panag is efficient. She is one talent who hasn't got her due in Hindi films. Alekh Sangal springs a pleasant surprise—he's excellent. Arjan Bajwa enacts his part very well. In fact, he's very restrained. Uvika is photogenic and does a decent acting job.

Ashutosh Rana is in top form yet again. Why don't we see more of him these days? Vikram Gokhale never gets it wrong and he's perfect here as well. But a top-notch actor like Prashant Narayanan deserved more footage. Sachin Khedekar is competent. Shweta Menon leaves a strong impression.