Star cast: Adil Hussain, Sarita Choudhury, Zoya Hassan, Sriharsh Churai
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Sona Jain’s For Real (English) is the story of a family in which the husband, Dr. Ravi Shukla (Adil Hussain), and wife, Priya Singh Shukla (Sarita Choudhury), do not get along with one another. They have two little children, Shruti (Zoya S. Hassan) and Paras (Sriharsh Sharma Churai). Shruti feels depressed because of the discord in the family, and this causes a chain reaction in her mind, making her withdraw into a fantasy world where she believes that her real mother has been sent to the Orion Galaxy and that the mother at home is an alien. Unable to get an explanation from anybody at home, Shruti runs away from home in search of her real mother. What happens thereafter is revealed in the latter part of the film.
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Writer Sona Jain has tried to show the story of an unhappy home through the eyes of an imaginative little girl whose only aim is to see her mother happy. Through her writing, she traces a woman’s journey to find herself, a man’s struggle to save his family and keep it together, and a child’s passage to find her real mother.
The story is very philosophical so that only the elite audience will be able to appreciate it even though it has been well-penned with an engrossing screenplay. By its very nature, the drama is quite depressing and, from the point of view of little Shruti, scary too. This would further restrict the film’s appeal. But it must be added that the screenplay moves in an interesting manner. Even the dialogues (by Sona Jain) are appealing.
Sarita Choudhury does a very fine job. Adil Hussain is quite good. Zoya S. Hassan stands out with a very promising debut. She is a delight to watch. Sriharsh Sharma
Churai also performs ably. Sameer Dharmadhikari plays Deepak Choudhury with ease.
Sona Jain’s direction is praiseworthy, more so as it is her debut attempt. Zakir Hussain’s music will be liked by the class audience. Ruben O’Malley’s cinematography and Amitabh Shukla’s editing are fine.
On the whole, although For Real is a well-made film, it is too philosophical to make any mark at the box-office because it does not have commercial ingredients which the
Indian audience looks for in a film. It will go without making any mark at the ticket windows though it may win critical acclaim.
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