One can write in details about a movie when either it impresses him a lot or when it turns out to be a complete disaster and a great waste of time for the viewer. But it's really tough and also uninteresting to write about a movie which simply leaves you midway and generates a confused kind of impact in the end. TURNING 30 is also one of those few new age movies, which though is based on a relevant and important subject but its end result is nothing more than a below average film made on a fine subject.
No doubt the basic idea behind the film looks like influenced by famous western projects such as BRIDGET JONE'S DIARY and SEX & THE CITY. But in order to create a more philosophical cum controversial kind of a film, its writer and the director move far away from the topic, giving way to the same old Bollywood kind of formulas in its second half.
As per the subject and its language, TURNING 30 is strictly meant for the urban audiences and that too only for the multiplexes. But after watching it, even the multiplex viewers may also feel like having seen something confusing because the film never justifies its meaningful title convincingly. It starts off pretty well with debutant director Alankrita Shrivastava focusing on the right things in the right manner. And its initial reels talk about the subject in a more specific way, with all those bold words and straight forwards dialogues. But later on the focus gets disturbed and one loses interest due to the script returning to the same old plots of the heroine penning a book on her personal experiences and finding her own way in the big bad world.
Ideally, TURNING 30 should have been made on the feelings, thought process and inner mindset of women who have reached that stage and how they tend to tackle the situation in their own way. A mix of 3-4 different stories of few distinctive ladies finding their own way to enter the 30s would have been a great script. But the present movie has only few initial moments talking about the basic theme and then the script starts moving into the same old set patterns post interval. And that's where it all falls flat making no impact of any sort on the viewer. As I felt, it should have been an insightful journey into the mind of lady turning 30 but sadly after its promising start, the film remains limited only to the visible physical changes in the body of a girl and never moves into the soul of an aging female mind anywhere in its latter reels.
Moreover, I simply cannot understand that if the directors of such films are so visionary and thoughtful of making a film on such a novel subject then why on earth they go on adding so many songs into it? Do they still believe that a Hindi Film cannot and should not be made without any songs? At the most, TURNING 30 needed only one song and that too, a sad one with some meaningful lyrics talking about dejection or un- acceptance. But strangely the songs do keep coming in at regular intervals which really are quite disturbing in such concept based movies. And here they even don't have any melody in them to calm you down.
Gul Panag as the leading character of the movie is fine and has broken many of her own set rules of the past in terms of boldness. But the writing gives her no support at all and lets her down completely. Purab Kohli is also good but again his role is not a well defined one in absence of any good reasons given for his coming back to Gul so passionately. Ira Dubey has only got a brief role in which she does well and the rest of the cast is strictly OK with everyone filling their parts to their best.
So, as a subject TURNING 30 had a lot to say and reveal but as a film it doesn't provide you enough explanation of its title theme. Still, if you really want to see it for any specific reason then you may watch it, but only after it gets released in the Home Video market.
