The good thing about a film like Turning 30, is that not only did it get made but also got a proper plot. Now the sad part about such a film is that it promotes a kind of mindset that is downright scary. Alankrita Shrivastava's bittersweet take on a woman's life spiraling out of control just around her 30th birthday meanders from being stupid to even nonsensical and is an inglorious tribute to Sex and the City.
Turning 30 Plot
Naina (Gul Panag) has everything going for her but like most young people she doesn't 'value' it enough. Ungrateful and thankless as she is, Naina scoffs when her textbook boyfriend, Rishab (Sid Makkar), tells her to look lovingly at children as they browse through groceries in a supermarket; mocks him when he cooks for her, kicks him off the bed when he's late for work- you get the picture? On the night when she thinks the boy is going to pop the question he dumps her for a close family friend's foreign returned daughter. To make matters worse her advertising career goes for a toss. Her gay boss gives in to the whims of his partner, a copywriter who took all the credit for Naina's award winning campaign, and her strange super boss with an even stranger stubble only mouths irrelevant one-liners. Thus starts Naina's journey of discovering her true self which entails kicking off with an ex-flame, Jai (Purab Kohli), who simply walked out on her and now four years later just wants to marry her. Her two close gal pals try to make things better but then Rukhsana's (Jeneva Talwar) bag of woes is always full- her philandering husband doesn't change his ways even after she delivers a baby that she though would set things right and Malini's (Tillotama Shome) dealing with her own girlfriend issues. Naina ends up penning her thoughts as an outlet and lo and behold Malini gets it published. Suddenly at 31 everything falls into place for Naina.
Even though it's doomed with a plot that has been done to death and marred by a screenplay that is as predictable as boiling an egg, Turning 30 could have been a sweetish film that would have made for a passable watch. Instead Naina's journey of finding herself is so fraught with utter absurdity that one wonders whatever made seemingly intelligent women like Gul Panag and Tillotama Shome agree to something like this?
First and foremost since when was turning 30 such a dreaded thing? You lost me at hello! When things are nothing going her way Naina tries to find some catharsis by devoting herself to a project called 'Post 30 Club', a place for which she is designing an advertising campaign. Now this club celebrates 'aging with grace' but pray tell me why were we subjected to septuagenarian women singing its praises? The whole stress on turning 30 and just about everyone telling Naina their way of dealing with 'aging'- new haircut, lingerie, massages and ahem...special toys; the whole thing seems so off the radar. And Naina's tedious Sex and the City inspired narration makes it worse for she makes it sound like reading some boring school essay.
Gul Panag fits the bill but Naina is a strange woman and while Panag tries hard to make her believable, the unbelievable silliness surrounding the character doesn't help. Shome shines in a few scenes and her 30 seconds of kicking her lover away makes up big time. Purab Kohli plays an artist which pretty much explains why he looks like a curtain rod with colorful scarves draped around his neck; Makkar plays a banker and dresses like one. The acting's very staged maybe because they all speak in English; thankfully they don't look at the camera for approval but still wait for cues like a appalling school play.
Final Words About Turning 30
There isn't anything wrong with such travesty being siphoned off as cinema and we have, in the past, been subjected to much worse but the miserable part is that for a film that is directed by a woman, Turning 30 is really insensitive towards the gender. Naina and Malini smoke in front of their pregnant friend, Rukhsana's husband is cheating on her but she doesn't mind it for she has a baby and the baby needs her father so she will live with it and many such things in the film make you shake your head in disbelief.
The real issue with the film is that Naina's reasons for losing it aren't explored at all; she desperately wants to get Rishab back but neither she nor anyone else knows whatever for. All we get as a parting gift is Naina's rather Fortune Cookie like one-liners where she signs off by saying 'all the answers are in my book.'
Turning 30 Cast: Gul Panag, Purab Kohli, Sid Makkar, Jeneva Talwar and Tillotama Shome.
Turning 30 Plot
Naina (Gul Panag) has everything going for her but like most young people she doesn't 'value' it enough. Ungrateful and thankless as she is, Naina scoffs when her textbook boyfriend, Rishab (Sid Makkar), tells her to look lovingly at children as they browse through groceries in a supermarket; mocks him when he cooks for her, kicks him off the bed when he's late for work- you get the picture? On the night when she thinks the boy is going to pop the question he dumps her for a close family friend's foreign returned daughter. To make matters worse her advertising career goes for a toss. Her gay boss gives in to the whims of his partner, a copywriter who took all the credit for Naina's award winning campaign, and her strange super boss with an even stranger stubble only mouths irrelevant one-liners. Thus starts Naina's journey of discovering her true self which entails kicking off with an ex-flame, Jai (Purab Kohli), who simply walked out on her and now four years later just wants to marry her. Her two close gal pals try to make things better but then Rukhsana's (Jeneva Talwar) bag of woes is always full- her philandering husband doesn't change his ways even after she delivers a baby that she though would set things right and Malini's (Tillotama Shome) dealing with her own girlfriend issues. Naina ends up penning her thoughts as an outlet and lo and behold Malini gets it published. Suddenly at 31 everything falls into place for Naina.
Even though it's doomed with a plot that has been done to death and marred by a screenplay that is as predictable as boiling an egg, Turning 30 could have been a sweetish film that would have made for a passable watch. Instead Naina's journey of finding herself is so fraught with utter absurdity that one wonders whatever made seemingly intelligent women like Gul Panag and Tillotama Shome agree to something like this?
First and foremost since when was turning 30 such a dreaded thing? You lost me at hello! When things are nothing going her way Naina tries to find some catharsis by devoting herself to a project called 'Post 30 Club', a place for which she is designing an advertising campaign. Now this club celebrates 'aging with grace' but pray tell me why were we subjected to septuagenarian women singing its praises? The whole stress on turning 30 and just about everyone telling Naina their way of dealing with 'aging'- new haircut, lingerie, massages and ahem...special toys; the whole thing seems so off the radar. And Naina's tedious Sex and the City inspired narration makes it worse for she makes it sound like reading some boring school essay.
Gul Panag fits the bill but Naina is a strange woman and while Panag tries hard to make her believable, the unbelievable silliness surrounding the character doesn't help. Shome shines in a few scenes and her 30 seconds of kicking her lover away makes up big time. Purab Kohli plays an artist which pretty much explains why he looks like a curtain rod with colorful scarves draped around his neck; Makkar plays a banker and dresses like one. The acting's very staged maybe because they all speak in English; thankfully they don't look at the camera for approval but still wait for cues like a appalling school play.
Final Words About Turning 30
There isn't anything wrong with such travesty being siphoned off as cinema and we have, in the past, been subjected to much worse but the miserable part is that for a film that is directed by a woman, Turning 30 is really insensitive towards the gender. Naina and Malini smoke in front of their pregnant friend, Rukhsana's husband is cheating on her but she doesn't mind it for she has a baby and the baby needs her father so she will live with it and many such things in the film make you shake your head in disbelief.
The real issue with the film is that Naina's reasons for losing it aren't explored at all; she desperately wants to get Rishab back but neither she nor anyone else knows whatever for. All we get as a parting gift is Naina's rather Fortune Cookie like one-liners where she signs off by saying 'all the answers are in my book.'
Turning 30 Cast: Gul Panag, Purab Kohli, Sid Makkar, Jeneva Talwar and Tillotama Shome.
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