October Review - An Immersive, Indulgent, Inspiring Experience

October is painstakingly crafted to look beautiful. Each frame, lovingly captured by cinematographer Avik Mukhopadhayay is meant to hold your eyes, captivate you. Ironic, because 115 minutes in, I wanted to look away. I didn’t want to feel the pain that Dan, Shiuli and the characters around them felt. This is a testament to writer Juhi Chaturvedi’s simple brilliance. Juhi, with the aid of a simple story, weaves a tale that isn’t too heavy on content but heavy on heart. She has a gift for tugging at your heart strings, to a point, where they almost break. So she heavily depends on visuals and acting to create a stellar film.

Luckily, both come through. Director Shoojit Sircar creates a world that is supposed to be Delhi, but is seen with a mystical outlook. Shoojit creates this rather depressing scenario so beautifully, and paints the canvas in mainly two areas - a hospital and a hotel. This is also ironic. These two are institutions on different ends of the ‘comfort spectrum’. A hospital offers you comfort through your darkest day and a hotel through your best ones. Dan & Shiuli are unfortunately (or fortunately) subject to both. This is the pain that October makes you feel. It makes you angry, that Shoojit made us go through this. You’ll feel a whirlwind of emotions but I promise you - boredom is not one of them.

October is the anti-Hindi film. You know in every Bollywood flick where there is that one song sequence where everybody, everything and all the surroundings are timeless, beautiful and slow moving. October, through its 1 hour 55 minute runtime, is that song sequence. Juhi tests your patience but every once in a while, throws in something to the story, to make you care even more. However, unlike the classic formula, just when October seems to be hitting a high point or a crescendo in its narrative, the film falls flat and continues its rather routine tone.

These are unfortunate circumstances for unfortunate people. The catalyst that Dan (a fantastic Varun Dhawan) needs to come out of genuinely being a bad person is not Shiuli as the pre-mentioned Hindi film formula would have you believe. It is the circumstances that befall her. Varun stumbles through October’s first act. He can’t decide whether to play the director’s vision out on screen. Hence, there are flashes of Judwaa 2’s Prem - a sweet simpleton. However, it is in the second act, when emotions hit a high point that Varun springs to life.

The confusion in his eyes emote a lifetime of dialogue. The hesitation and the questions that Dan internally asks him, including, “What the hell am I doing here?”, are all masterfully portrayed by Varun - without the aide of dialogues. Banita Sandhu may have fewer scenes but creates maximum impact. Especially after October’s intermission is where Banita flexes her acting chops. She works to make a truly tricky act believable and withstands the wringer of emotions that Juhi and Shoojit send her and Dan through. The quiet love that brews between an unlikable, arrogant hospital understudy and his comatose colleague is what grounds the film.

It quietly places itself in the undertones of each scene. As Dan looks at a comatose Shiuli, the main star of the scene - love, shows up. Also fantastic is Isha Chaturvedi, playing Shiuli’s best friend. This is Isha’s first film role, but the ease with which she conducts herself and the genuine frustration she has when it comes to Dan is natural. But the real scene stealer of October is Gitanjali Rao. Gitanjali’s eyes and messy hair capture a lifetime of pain. She plays Shiuli’s helpless mother, under pressure to pull the plug on her bubbly daughter. Rao’s act saves the film, especially in the second half. There’s a scene between her and Dan’s mom. It’s quiet (there’s really a lack of dialogues) but it’s heartbreaking at once. The awkwardness and familiarity are evident.

That perhaps, sums up October. It is Shoojit Sircar’s most timeless film to date. However, it must be noted that if a woman named Juhi Chaturvedi didn’t exist, October would’ve been much poorer. Shoojit’s two trump cards are Juhi and the plethora of talented actors that shine - especially the three leads - Banita Sandhu, Varun Dhawan and Gitanjali Rao. However, I must warn you. October’s not for everybody. Its slow pace and lack of story will alienate some people. I can’t say that I didn’t know what the climax would be, but it still broke my heart, in more ways than one. October is a special experience. I can’t recommend the disgust, angst, sadness, happiness, optimism, pessimism and grief you will feel with the film, but as Juhi and Shoojit tell it - it’s an essential part of life. I’m going with four stars.