Film: Is Love Enough? Sir
Director: Rohena Gera
Cast: Tillotama Shome, Vivek Gomber, Geetanjali Kulkarni
Mona
Everyone in life has dreams...and has all the right and the might to chase them. Is Love Enough? Sir is a simple heart-warming story. A young widow leaves her life in the village behind to start afresh in Mumbai. As she starts in the big city as a house help, she dreams of a being a fashion designer. A writer in New York has to come back in Mumbai due to a family emergency. Circumstances force him to choose architecture over his writing, couple it with a fiancée who cheats and a marriage cancelled at the eleventh hour. That makes two of them – trying to make sense of life. But would the twain meet is the question.
Love is life for some, luxury for others. This very ordinary plotline makes for a heart-warming story. Tillotama Shome takes the cake for essaying various shades of emotions to perfection. The guileless woman from the village who thinks and feels and is ready to work extra hard to ensure her younger sister doesn’t have to go through the fate as hers. Even if she is a maid – she has an independent life, away from the misery that befalls a widow in a village.
She tells her grieving ‘Sir’ that life doesn’t end in face of challenges. Her simplicity and devotion wins her employer. But it’s not a match that can be accepted. One warms up to Ratna (Tillotama Shome) wishing only the very best for her, just like the man who falls for her guileless charm. Vivek Gomber is reserved, understated but determined. A loveable character.
The film, even at an hour and 38 minutes, moves slow. As much for characters, it’s the background score that demarcates the two worlds – noise in the city to the natural music of the hills. An unconventional romance film for sure but Sir makes for a pleasant diversion into a world of simple basic emotions. Though this film made was screened at Cannes in 2018, it is currently trending number 1 on Netflix. Kudos to the director who has to her credit the documentary What’s Love Got to Do with It?, which again explored love and marriage, for telling this offbeat story in a befitting manner.
