By Subhash K Jha
Upstarts (Netflix film)
Cast: Priyanshu Painyuli,Chanrachoor Rai,Vinay Shadaab Kamal; Direction: Udai Pawar; Rating: ***(three stars)
At the start, when an elopement plan goes awry, the enterprising spirit is awakened. Why not start an elopement app service?
Why not, indeed. “Upstarts” dares to dream. Unlike many other coming-of-age films, this one actually manages to stay balanced and even-toned despite the various ups and downs in the equation shared among three friends who constitute the core of the dream-plan.
What helps, and helps immensely, is the conviction that the actors bring to their otherwise jaded portraits of youthful optimism. Priyanshu Painyuli, Chanrachoor Rai and Vinay Shadaab Kamal, playing sturdy buddies, eke out an extensive persuasion from their characters. So much so that you wonder if this ode to inchoate audacity would have worked without this trio of actors.
The idea for an app, financed by a Sachiin Joshi-type of enterprising tycoon, that three friends think up — Uber styled delivery of medicine at the doorstep — is so tenable you wonder if someone would actually adopt it after watching this straight-talking innocuous coming-of-age film, perhaps the best of its genre since Farhan Akhtar’s “Dil Chahta Hai”. Although that’s not saying much considering the kind of callow upstartish films that have come in between.
The ‘facelessness’ of the actors is a prominent plus. Painyuli, so compelling in the title role of Vikramaditya Motwane’s “Bhavesh Joshi Superhero”, is specially articulate in enunciating the complexities that arise from the clash among ambition, loyalty and ideology. His co-stars Chanrachoor Rai and Vinay Shadaab Kamal are also in-character. Though they all deserve success, you don’t wish that to happen to these actors. We all know what success does to talent. Who would know this better than this film’s three heroes Kapil, Yash and Vinay?
And now how about the sequel on that elopement app?
–IANS
skj/vnc