Tribhanga

"Tribhanga" tells the stories of three generations of women tied by an incident in the most unconventional way. The film very beautifully defies and questions the patriarchal society, avoiding preachiness throughout. Directed by a lady, the film delves deep into the emotions of womanhood and charting from what appears to be an unlikeable protagonist puts the audiences into different perspectives to understand the complexity of life. Aside the foul language which might make some viewers uncomfortable, the film is one of its kind for the beautiful characters, performances, and simply its storytelling.

Rating: 2.5 stars out of 4.

Be ready to get enthralled by watching three unique and fascinating levels of Tribhanga and the inherent correlations, performed by seasoned and convincing dancers, well worthy of a loud applause. Kudos to the choreographer, Renuka Shahane.

Movie would have been a good but Kajol spoiled it with her overacting.

Anuradha Apte (Kajol), an accomplished Odissi dancer is suddenly summoned to the hospital due to her mother Nayan's (Tanvi Azmi) having suffered a cerebral stroke, leading to coma. Anu arrives with her daughter Masha (Mithila Palkar) and brother Robindro (Vaibhav Tatwawaadi), rather nonchalantly, as she is not really emotionally connected to her mother, to the surprise of Milan (Kunal Roy Kapoor), who is penning Nayan's autobiography.

Tribhanga is a glimpse into the past of the three women across three generations, and how their respective choices of living their lives influenced and shaped that of the next generations. It's a domino effect in which Anu who suffered the effects of Nayan's choices, ensured Masha's childhood remained protected, and Masha in turn, rejoicing to live amid a large, joint family even at the expense of her individual freedom and values.

The subject is sensitive and has been handled with flourish by director Renuka Shahane. Kajol obviously gets the lion's share of screen time and is the central character - she delivers a strong performance that on a few occasions comes out as rather loud and over the top. Tanvi Azmi and Mithila Palkar have comparatively smaller roles, but don't fail to create a deep impact by holding their ground. Kunal Roy Kapoor is delightful as the outsider who connects the three women and helps reestablish mutual respect and appreciation. Tribhanga is a remarkable effort to showcase family values in modern times, and would have been even better if the events were better connected and the characters of Nayan and Masha were given more screen space. Baba Azmi's cinematography is par excellence.

I wasn't expecting much but this movie left me in tears. I was weeping at the end of it.

I liked that it was bilingual to some extent -made it very authentic.

As a cinephile, this was great story telling. I hated kajol in the beginning how brash and obnoxious she was and not to mention abusive (seemed to close to her real life persona from movies).

Then as the movie progressed, it made sense why she was the way she was. Kunal Roy Kapur also stole the show, you feel for him.

The movie shines light on women and their choices in Indian patriarchal system and also children coming from "broken families". It was heart touching the way everything was dealt.

Surprised to see Kajol is such a dark movie + the movie made by some of the big names in Bollywood. Definitely, a great attempt at storytelling and also directing from a debutant director.

Kudos to Renuka Shahane.