Fireflies

Cast: Monica Dogra, Rahul Khanna, Arjun Mathur, Shivani Ghai, Aadya Bedi

Writer/Director/Producer: Sabal Singh Sheikhawat

Plot: ‘Fireflies’ is the story of two estranged brothers – Shiv and Rana.

Shiv, a successful banker, lives in the superficial glitter of corporate Bombay. The younger brother, Rana, is a law school dropout who lives by the day.

Though worldly experiences and illusions briefly illuminate the brothers’ journeys, a tragedy that befell them fifteen years earlier seems destined to repeat itself, just in new incarnations.

Flames suddenly extinguish again, in an eerie heartbeat.

The journey ahead echoing with voices, visions and the magic realism of the years gone by, beckons the brothers. Only if they can find each other again can they piece together the picture in the puzzle that was scattered so long ago.

Fireflies come out in the night, just to light up the darkness. They live as long as the glow lasts.

Even if it is a lifetime, being lived in a day.

Rating: 3/5 Stars (Three stars)

Star Cast: Monica Dogra, Rahul Khanna, Arjun Mathur, Shivani Ghai, Aadya Bedi

Director: Sabal Singh Sheikhawat

What’s Good: A strong blend of passion and angst frames its core story and is delivered through a couple of solid performances.

What’s Bad: The story has its own share of incoherence and suffers from loopy writing. In parts, it drags and its drama doesn’t remain crisp consistently.

Loo break: Pretty many

Watch or Not?: Fireflies brings out that piercing tinge of heartbreak beautifully in its 1 hour 45 minutes run time. But the film’s scripting is scattered, with the two equally potent stories running parallel individually and yet never blending smoothly to make a heart wrenching concoction. The film works in parts for me, for its performances, for its soul and its narrative, but it fails to reach that cut of beauty it had the potential to achieve. The jerk of the sudden climax revels in its all consuming, vulnerability which is liberating to watch and that is what makes it an unmissable watch.

User Rating: 

Shiv (Rahul Khanna) is a young, South Bombay businessman, who on the apparent is stably married. The emptiness of his marriage doesn’t hit him until he meets his ex lover an former girlfriend Sharmila. His brother Rana, who cannot hold on to a job rediscovers his life in television bylanes of Bangkok, falls in love with a free spirited writer and tastes the hardships of unrequited love.

The string binding both Shiv and Rana is their common past, stained with pain more than love. Fireflies is the story of finding happiness and way back home.

Fireflies Review: Script Analysis

The vision of Fireflies doesn’t go beyond the perspective of its narrator who defines everything about the film, its soul and its spirit. But the problem is its plagued with myopia and tries to tick all the expected boxes. Cheating husbands, failing relationships, tormented past are all out of the plethora one can easily foresee. In terms of story, there is no power to it in terms of novelty and yet what works is its storytelling which is intricately wrapped in poetry. In one of the scenes where an estranged couple are falling back in love after many years, over heady glasses of Cabarnet Sauvignon, there is a certain beauty and magic in their love.

The story begins dull, the tempo weak and shaky in parts. And yet, once Shiv and Ila are together they light up the story with their love. Somehow the unrequited quality in their love enticed me more than that of Rana and Michelle’s, whom convenience drew together. Rana is a complex guy, still bearing the heaviness of his guilt. In simple ways he conveys it. At one point, he tells his brother how he returned the money he had borrowed from him in a week. There is an evident undercurrent of brooding tension between the siblings and since the film doesn’t offer its reason to you in its first part, the gravity of it hits you much later once its background and backstory is let out.

The film’s story is somewhat half baked but it is how it’s told that holds your attention. It doesn’t force you to think but drags you into the lives of its characters who are flawed, craving for love and are all bogged down by weights of their past. There is a lot of literature well used in this film and the script’s strength arises from its Heartfelt love.

Fireflies Review: Star Performances

Rahul Khanna fits the bill perfectly with his suave demeanor and subtle acting. Emoting well with his eyes, he is fantastic outright.

Arjun Mathur who went pretty much wasted in Zoya Akhtar’s Luck By Chance was used well in this film and I can safely say he brings out the dilemma of this character alive.

Monica Dogra doesn’t achieve half of her brilliance of Dhobi Ghat. She was stiff and not exactly fantastic.

Shivani Ghai is quite good in the role and her chemistry with Rahul sparkles enough to give the first half of the film its beauty.