Teree Sang Hindi Movie

The oddly spelled Teree Sang is the kind of film that I feel heartbroken to criticise. It's undoubtedly earnest and well intentioned- even oddly touching in parts, but nothing can take away from the fact that it's a film that is way too dated and simplistic- there are too many complex emotions that this 'kidult love story' unfortunately chooses to ignore and too many moribund stereotypes that it pushes through. Aug 7, 2009 By Jahan Bakshi

The oddly spelled Teree Sang is the kind of film that I feel heartbroken to criticise. It's undoubtedly earnest and well intentioned- even oddly touching in parts, but nothing can take away from the fact that it's a film that is way too dated and simplistic- there are too many complex emotions that this 'kidult love story' unfortunately chooses to ignore and too many moribund stereotypes that it pushes through.

The theme may be modern, and the film certainly has its heart in the right place- but Satish Kaushik's filmmaking is too old-school to effectively portray teenage angst and sexuality. The characters speak like kindergarten students, and while Ruslaan Mumtaz and Sheena Shahabadi have likeable screen presence and are endearing, they can't do much to rise above their poorly written parts. The rest of the cast including Rajat Kapoor, Neena Gupta, Satish Kaushik (who amusingly reserves all the one liners for himself) and Sushmita Mukherjee are reduced to pure caricature.

It would be useless to start picking on the logical loopholes- everything is conveniently glossed over and after a point it's futile to complain. The treatment clearly belongs to the 90's and you make peace with that. What's perhaps more disappointing is how the writers who clearly wanted to be 'progressive' develop cold feet, even resorting to the usual preachy lecturing in the end. After the 'accident' that leads to the girl's pregnancy, the couple are shown to be in a completely platonic relationship, and the kisses move from the lips to the forehead and cheeks. And while the female protagonist in one of the more honest moments of the film says, 'I am not a victim', teenage sexuality is still taboo and a 'crime'- and the film is never absolutely non-judgmental, blaming parental negligence for it instead.

So while it's great that this film is not a copy, it seems that it would be a while before we have our own Juno, that can actually examine such complex issues seriously, but with a light hand.