Summer of 2007

and white coats and stethoscopes draped gracefully round their necks. Student politics rears its ugly head, and the five rich kids (Sikander, Gul, Arjan, Yuvika, Aalekh) get stopped in their tracks, filled till then only by fancy clothes, gadgets, gals, and rolled joints, interrupted by classes. They head out ostensibly to do ‘rural service’, but with full intentions of getting back to the good life.

It’s the reality checks which the film shifts to, post interval, which make it a worthwhile enterprise. A cynical doc (Ashutosh) shows the students a life they’ve only been dimly aware till now : the lives of farmers who find death a better alternative than life, the vicious, powerful landlord and his son who rapes and pilfers (Vikram Gokale, Prashant Narayanan), and the helplessness of those around.

Tatari traverses classic Benegal territory, with this return to the rural, but not quite with as much impact, because he is forced to swing between the harsh textures of real life, and lit-up drama . Given that villages have practically disappeared from films, he has to put in a whole bunch of yo’s and bro’s, and ‘shehari’ slobs and yobs, because that’s the only way he can get to the ‘gaon’, which is carefully made to look pretty : if you have a nice lake in the background, and an item number, it makes a hanging more palatable. And looks like his apprehensions were right : the first show in my neighbourhood multiplex was cancelled because there were no tickets sold.

Which is a huge pity, because ‘Summer of 2007’ is a relevant, well-acted, well-intentioned film. It needed much better publicity.

shubhra.gupta@gmail.com