“Music is my art, music is my home;
Music is my heart; music is you and me alone…”
Zubaan is the coming-of-age story of a boy who is scared of
music. Dilsher, a young boy from Gurdaspur, Punjab stammers while talking due
to which he frequently gets bullied by his schoolmates. Yet, at the local Gurdwara, he manages to sing the shabads perfectly, while accompanying his father. Music
happens to be his calling although he has no clue about it. Not as yet.
One day, while Dilsher (Harmehroz Singh) was
trying to defend himself from the bullies at a brick factory in the village, onlooker business tycoon Gurcharand Sikand (Manish Chaudhari) gives him the
lesson of his life – the only person who can help someone in distress is he, himself.
He (Vicky Kaushal) grows up, moves to Delhi, starts working for a security agency
and after a series of carefully structured events, gets to meet Sikand, who eventually
becomes so impressed by his will and wit, that he becomes his mentor, almost adopts him and keeps
him in his mansion. Soon, Dilsher becomes an eyesore for the other members of
the Sikand family – especially Sikand’s hard-working yet incompetent son, Surya
(Raaghav Chanana). As Dilsher rises up the business ladder, he is
subjected to severe resistance and inner politics. Music is lost somewhere along the way.
It
is only after meeting Amira, a performer and a friend of Surya, who invites
Dilsher to Dhruvtara, a birthday celebration of her deceased brother in the middle of a
desert, he is re-introduced to music. He sings at the break of dawn but right
afterwards he spontaneously says – Gaje-baje sey koi matlab nahi, yeh meri
duniya he nahi hai. Flashback scenes help us understand how Dilsher had to witness
a tragic family accident in his childhood that made him petrified of music.
Slowly and reluctantly, with a little bit of coaxing from Amira, Dilsher gets
back to singing and eventually embarks on a journey to find his inner voice.
In
Zubaan, director Mozes Singh has taken an age-old family drama of rivalry
and quest for one’s identity and presented it with a fresh, modern day perspective
with a dash of music. Cinematographer Swapnil Sonawane deserves a mention here
especially for the desert sequences, the vast expanses of which look
staggeringly beautiful in the film. The story has many subtle moments which add
to the conflict between the characters. The foot-tapping numbers composed by
Ashu Phatak have been placed well in the film, although some of their
visualizations can sometimes be jarring. The movie seems to stretch a bit in
the second half, especially when more importance is given to the ongoing family
drama and less on the protagonist’s desire for pursuing music. The lack of
subtitles can be an issue since the movie is partly in Punjabi, although it’s
not too difficult to follow what’s going on.
At
one point in the film, Dilsher says - “Phul gaye ji menu?” Perhaps
nobody who has seen Neeraj Ghaywan’s Masaan will ever forget the powerful performance
of Vicky Kaushal, arguably the best find of 2015 in the acting department. In
Zubaan too, each time he appears on screen, it is impossible to look away from
the raw energy he emanates. The character of the elder Dilsher is morally
ambiguous. Yet, we understand his angst and feel bad for him when he is
ruthlessly beaten. Kaushal breathes heart and soul into Dilsher and lives his
part. Interestingly, Kaushal had shot for Zubaan even before Masaan, his technically
first release.
Sarah Jane Dias beautifully supports Kaushal through the
film and Manish Chaudhari does justice as the bitter and ruthless Gurcharand
Sikand. Harmehroz Singh’s innocence pierces through his eyes and even
though he doesn’t have much dialogues, his presence in the flashback scenes create a certain impact. Although Raaghav Chanana stumbles with his performance
in some parts, he otherwise manages to deliver decently. In fact I could find
hints of the character’s alternate sexual preferences and perhaps it would have
been interesting to see the director exploring this aspect a bit more, which
would have added to the traits of Surya and the overarching acrimony and
family politics. Meghna Malik is almost hysterical as the mother and trophy
wife. Somehow I couldn’t connect with her.
In the end, however you are left with the lilting ‘Aajj
Sanu O Mileya’, which loosely translates to ‘I found all my answers’. We all
are looking for answers and most of us haven’t quite managed to find them.
Zubaan is a triumph of the inner will and one must take this meditative cinematic
journey, perhaps in order to ask the right question.
