I was more than surprised to see Rahul Bose create an artistically moving and very indigenous piece of cinema in his clever directorial debut Everybody Says I'm Fine! that I was completely hooked to the screen the entire 100 minutes even as lead actor Rehan Engineer puts up a wooden face whenever he is supposed to act. For a film released in 2001, watching it in 2018 feels like a run down the memory lane, especially if you have been in Mumbai, as director Bose checks all the boxes in his product - Apple computers, upscale salon, trendy socialites, typical socialite talk with that vanity, young romance - and I sat there looking at them like a kid drooling at an ice-cream van's menu. Engineer plays a beauty salon owner who is also the head stylist/barber in the heart of the city and which is frequented by the socialites of the upper class Mumbai. Under his clean-shaven look and balding mane is the absurd power of hearing another person's thoughts whenever he cuts their hair, giving him a wholly different picture of the person than what they have concocted for the outside world. I don't think I have ever seen that concept out in the wild and it is absolutely fascinating to be a spectator with Xen, the character, as opens his shop, listens to a dozen inner thoughts, and goes back to sleep. Everybody Says I'm Fine! is made linearly and has bold scenes at every juncture, which I think must have contributed to how it was received close to two decades earlier. It even has Bose in a starring role (an eccentric), Boman Irani at his fine air of a businessman, and Pooja Bhatt - all of whom are so fun to watch regardless of their characters. I was blown away by the entire parade of proceedings that Everybody Says I'm Fine! churns out with so much substance and energy that I was a bit disappointed by how it ends. Looked like Bose was unable to bid adieu to his creative flow as the comedy drama ends like a bag full of water and one tiny leaking hole. Everyone interested in Bollywood should check it out though. TN.
