Here’s Why Ayan Mukerji Needs to Bring Back The ‘feel Good’ to Bollywood
That brings us to another question, is there such a thing as exploring only what one excels at? Certainly not. Art demands experimentation. It comes to the fore from curiosity. But when you have given an entire generation two of the best coming of age stories, it sure sets you up for high expectations. Which is perhaps why the action thriller feels jarring to many.
Why is this question relevant? And why must we ask it? Because, we are talking about someone who at just 26, made one of the biggest Bollywood breakthroughs as a debutant director with Wake Up Sid (2009). Ayan then followed it up with Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013), a film that is applauded in pop culture even today and it received such great response during its re-release, more than a decade later. Ayan is someone whose filmography consists of only four films and yet he has managed to create stories and success in ways that many other filmmakers can only dream of. How rare is that?
In Wake Up Sid, Ayan brought the innocence of love and mystery of feelings to perspective, with a very gentle touch. When Sidharth Menon aka Sid (Ranbir Kapoor), a spoilt brat from a well to do family meets Aisha Banerjee (Konkana Sen Sharma), an aspiring writer, what follows is a journey of two completely different individuals put together by fate. Aisha and Sid are poles apart like chalk and cheese. He is a social butterfly, while she likes being away from the limelight. Their unlikely bond sparks the much-needed curiosity for the viewer, who wonders how the story will pan out.
The film also wonderfully chronicles the journey of Sid from the crucial transitional stage of a final year student to a fresher in a corporate space. Amidst Sid’s slow self-discovery, Aisha comes around as a rather unconventional female protagonist with simplicity and agency. She represents that group of adolescents who are trying to make a living in the city of Bombay away from their home. Aisha doesn’t hesitate before telling Sid that she cannot be with someone as immature as him, that she cannot clean after him and the world definitely doesn’t revolve around him. Aisha is anything but your quintessential heroine. She does not steal the spotlight, walking in slow motion as the audience stares at either her beauty or her grooming. Instead, Aisha is one to explore the city on her own and confess her dislikes to her boss unapologetically. She likes to live life on her own terms – a quality both inspirational and empowering.
Together, Sid’s and Aisha’s stories highlight two different sides of adulthood, one cushioned in privilege trying to find a purpose and other driven by dreams creating an individual identity.
The nostalgic appeal in the film – bunking college, canteen conversations, farewell parties, late night drives savour the joy of being young, wild and free. To add to that we have tiny little details like Aisha’s aesthetically decorated Bombay house, late night conversations by Marine drive at night accompanied by a cup of chai and birthday celebrations with a simple bread cake at a quiet house party of two. These aspects make the film, mundanely magical.
Another remarkable aspect of Ayan’s twin-romcoms is Ranbir Kapoor. Ranbir embodies the spirit and varying emotions of youth, in both Wake Up Sid and YJHD, perfectly without underlining single emotion. In Wake Up Sid, he transforms from an irresponsible kid to a responsible young adult taking accountability while in YJHD he goes from being a free-spirited wanderer to being tied tight by emotions. Ranbir becomes the perfect vessel to carry Ayan’s stories.
If Wake Up Sid is about tender shifts, YJHD is about big and thrilling leaps. It follows a bunch of 20-somethings and their messy, unfiltered and fun navigation of adulthood when the youngsters take a trip to Manali. Through trips, chaos, heartbreaks and reunions, Ayan also captures the other side of adolescence – loneliness that we often tend to shield.
The lines – Ban liyaapnapaighambar, tar liyasaatsamandar / Phirbhisookhamannkeandar, kyun reh gaya? – beautifully explore the harsh reality of growing up. Bunny fulfils his ambition of travelling around the world, racing through the streets of Paris and living vicariously, but it is when he returns to Udaipur for Aditi’s (Kalki Koechlin) wedding eight years later does he realize the importance of missed moments, the impact of his neglect towards his childhood best friends Avi (Aditya Roy Kapur) and Aditi and falls gloriously in love with Naina (Deepika Padukone). Such minute intricacies of longing in relationships, the repercussions of detachment were brilliantly explored by Ayan.
It’s easy to reference multiple public reviews that say YJHD came along at a point in people’s lives when they themselves were going through the transition. And it served as a very comforting reminder of the dialogue Jitnabhi try karlo Bunny life meinkuchnakuchtohchutega hi – capturing the duality of choice and sacrifice.
Through Bunny, Ayan presented ambitions of his own and perhaps of many. Bunny was someone unafraid to take risks, hungry on adventure and travel and averse to comfort zones. And showing the importance of emotions and connections through the same Bunny who thrived on wanderlust, was a masterclass move that Ayan aced.
Very few filmmakers have explored the naivety, passion and vulnerability of adolescence as accurately as Ayan. His stories weren’t aspirational fantasies, they were compassionate slices of life which is why many on the internet feel Ayan Mukerji belongs to this genre. The romantic, feel-good film. For these fans of the genre, Ayan Mukerji made their own lives cinematic. Hence, when he created a hyper-stylised War 2, many felt it was not just a shift in the genre but a departure from what made him an audience’s director.
In truth, this criticism only reflects how deeply his earlier work still resonates with the audience. In his director’s note of YJHD Ayan revealed how he poured everything that he knew of relationships, love and heartbreak into the film only reflecting how close the stories lie to his heart. And that closely held belief, deeply resonated with the audience, too.
Maybe War 2 didn’t live up to the mark of these fans. And may not even be remembered the same way as Ayan’s earlier films. But does that diminish the storyteller who gave us two of the finest cultural touchstones? We’d beg to differ.
Which is why a fresh coming of age Ayan Mukerji directorial that explores the sublime nature of youth, probably with a Ranbir Kapoor cameo, sounds like a perfect recipe to rekindle feel-good stories that Bollywood so dearly misses. Saiyaara has proven that the young audience is ready to fall in love at the movies. Ayan Mukerji is the perfect storyteller to recreate that magic once again.
Also Read: Pictures: Here’s how Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor celebrated Ranbir’s birthday
