Hollywood has given innumerable chick flicks namely the likes of 13 Going On 30, Sex And The City, Bridget Jones Diary, Clueless among others. However, Bollywood has never really experimented much in this domain. Not too long ago filmmaker Rajshree Ojha burnt her fingers with her attempt Aisha and now Alankrita Shrivastava is trying her hands with a chick flick Turning 30.
The film is about an urban woman Naina (Gul Panag), living in Mumbai and how her life takes a turn when she hits the age of 30.
To begin with, her stable boyfriend Rishab (Siddharth Makkar) dumps her for a richer and hotter girl. And then she loses her job.
Fighting with her mother's insistence to get her married Naina somehow manages to get a hold of her life when her college affair Jay (Purab Kohli) who comes back and proposes her for marriage. Now whether she marries him or he just becomes her rebound case and how she gets her life together follows through the rest of the plot.
Turning 30 takes off very well but suddenly turns into a tripe plot. Repetition is a recurring issue in the film. The fact that Naina doesn't come to terms with her break up and keeps making attempts of getting back with Rishab is also reinstated several times. Despite that neither do you feel for the character nor does her emotional turmoil touch you.
Moreover, the film appears straight out of novel. Director Alankrita Shrivastava seemingly appears to be a big fan of chick lit or chick flicks and produces a mishmash of all of them. The screenplay is exactly the way one would visualize a scene while reading a book. Another sore point is the dialogues which sound very lyrical and bookish as if one is reading them out and the film is 80 % in English. The music isn't appeasing either.
However, Turning 30 does have some light moments, specially the interaction between Gul and her two friends Ruksana (Jeneva Talwar) and Malini (Tillotama Shome) but they are few and far in between. Purab Kohli is decent while Siddharth Makkar acts well. Ira Dubey stands out even in a cameo.
Over all, Turning 30 is too bookish in its form. It could've been better read than seen.
Critic: Noyon Jyoti Parasara
(2 / 5) : Average