Sukhee

Sukhee (2023) : Movie Review:

After Ad-eing a few known films, Sonal Joshi makes her directorial debut with Sukhee, led by Shilpa Shetty. The subject of women's empowerment is becoming too mainstream nowadays, with at least one film made on it in a year. It seems like writers, directors, and artists are out of stories, and that's why they are running behind what's been done before, trying to redecorate the bygone formula. Bollywood has a glorious history of women-oriented classics like "Aurat" (1940), "Parineeta" (1953), "Mother India" (1957), "Sujatha" (1959), "Anuradha" (1960), and "Bandini" (1963), among many more wave-changing films made in the 70s and 90s. The definition of this theme was well defined by the genius filmmakers and well preserved by the audiences over the years. Frankly, today it has become a joke. Alankrita Srivastava thinks woman empowerment means freedom of sex, while Rhea Kapoor thought female private talks were taboo for today's urban generation. That's why those old classics have remained on top and so special that no one can touch them. Someone from down South thought about making a Tamil classic like "Gargi" (2002) that restored my faith in woman-empowering cinema. I felt like, "Yes, it's alive". Then we have had several Bollywood films in the last decade, but none of them has become memorable enough, except for Vikas Bahl's "Queen" (2013) and Gauri Shinde's "English Vinglish" (2012)-films that actually dealt with unique female problems without losing sanity and sophisticated values. Sukhee is far too outdated for the race. "Bedharak, Besharam, Beparwah!" That's the motto this film intends to carry, and it does it successfully too. It's only that it hasn't much to do with the main context of the film.

Sukhee (Shilpa Shetty) has been married for 20 years (never looked so old anyway) and is unhappy with her broken life. She is being treated disrespectfully by her husband and her teenage daughter. After the demise of the only person who cared for her, her father-in-law, she decides to go back to New Delhi for a reunion with her college-time girlfriends. The gang of 4 reunites and has a gala time, and these two days make Sukhee actually sukhee (happy). However, this happy period makes her relationship with her husband and daughter strained. She learns about her mistakes and how she wasn't thinking about her self-respect for the sake of her husband, daughter, and society. Her decision to go free and enjoy life turns the tide for her and her loved ones. Will she realise where to draw the line, and will her husband and daughter understand their mistakes?

Sukhee has the same old plot you see in at least one film every year, and the count might be two or three in today's OTT era. In the trailer and in the film, there is a dialogue by one of the characters, saying, "Har woman-oriented film ki kahaani same hi hoti hai". Well, the writer of this dialogue has already reviewed the film before us critics and audiences. It's so typical and outdated now that even writing this outdated word here looks so outdated to me. Sukhee just doesn't understand the modernization process at all. You could have seen it a decade ago and yet feel it's too mainstream and dated. We are almost a decade ahead now, and yet they are stuck to old ideas and traditional methods of storytelling. Every single scene reminds you of a certain Bollywood film from the last decade or two, and you feel like, "Is it a mash-up?" I don't understand this "sabki life imperfect nahi hoti" formula at all. Come on, we all know it, but we don't say it. That's too freaking cliche! The daughter talking about her mother, the husband overreacting to almost every action of her, the old wannabe boyfriend, the girls gang with no character graph, the same old no-talking father, and the same old neighbours-what's not there that isn't copied or seen before? Why can't we see at least one sensible character who is intelligent and smart enough about its behaviour and its language? It seems that Bimal Roy and Mehboob Khan took that talent with them to heaven. Today's filmmakers are making films only to go to Narak (as Sukhee tells her father-in-law).

Shilpa Shetty's attempt at character-driven films is somewhat successful, but she needs to surrender to the character instead of trying to be glamorous. Nikamma went horribly wrong in the climax, Hungama 2 is not even discussable, and Sukhee is half-baked cake for her. She does look good in some scenes, especially the emotional ones. But what a terrible mismatch she is to the young part. Those prosthetics, hairdos, and all that transfer you to a low-grade cinema from a PVR multiplex. The tinder fame Kusha Kapila is looking to settle in Bollywood nowadays, but she needs to be better at acting to hold the ground here. Just good looks, a few abusive dialogues (with perfect dialogue delivery, mind you), and a wannabe sensational attitude would take her nowhere. Amit Sadh joins the party late, and I was expecting him to end my wait for the first sensible character, but even he went wrong. Pavleen Gujral and Dilnaz Irani's characters are too stretched, but they have been able to pull off a decent show. Chaitanya Choudhry, Kiran Kumar, Vinod Nagpal, Purnima Rathod, Sejal Gupta, Komal Sachdeva, and others offer nothing impressive in the supporting roles.

Sukhee isn't placed on a heavy budget, so it's quite understandable why it has some issues with the production design. The cinematography and editing are better than expected, while the background score could have been better. I wish Sukhee had at least one wild, go-crazy type of song to explore the madness of feminism. The opportunity is missed, though. The Punjabi flavour in the tune might work for upper-northern audiences but not others. Sonal Joshi is more guilty of approving the story than directing it with her mediocre vision. More than Sonal, I'd blame Radhika Anand, Paulomi Dutta, and Rupinder Inderjit for not giving her a single new buck. Why don't we have some kind of demonization in Bollywood that will force filmmakers and writers to use only new ideas? Sukhee is not a fully Dukhee film, and that's its biggest achievement. But why waste 135 minutes on that? The film was almost nearing a dukhee end by the time it was over. Sorry, but feminism deserves better stories.

RATING - 4/10*