Audience Member
A Bollywood movie actress- and a middle class housewife- and a night show Radio Jockey- all these are three individual women from different walks of life- and there should be a solid actress to pull all the three of them off with infectious, seductive charm and a distinctive voice- consider all of it, and you get the lead protagonist Sulochana, played interestingly by Vidya Balan. The best performance by an actress in this whole decade, 'Tumhari Sulu' has a script where a woman takes a leap, a flight do fancy that's realistic enough to be believable. The performances of Manav Kaul as Vidya's better half, Neha Dhupia as her boss, RJ Malishka as Albeli Anjali, all add to the beauty of this simple, feel-good but absolutely coherent film. There's a deep-delving sense of satisfaction which 'TS' has to offer. Only that makes it worth watching.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/25/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Vidya Balan doesn't need to prove she has acting chops. To the discerning eye, glimpses of her in Euphoria's Gully music video or the Parineeta trailer are enough proof. In a film about Sulu then, it feels utterly unnecessary to have scenes that serve the actor, rather than the film itself.
Sulu's husband is played by Jajantaram Mamantaram's Manav Kaul, who I was happy to see after so long. He does a good job of whatever limited screen time he's given, especially in the hit song Ban Ja Rani. Even Neha Dhupia glimmers in her pseudo-glamorous role of a radio station boss.
Balan has played a radio jockey before (Munnabhai 2). Here, it's her Dirty Picture character brought into the mic booth. What is an interesting idea for a story makes for a very slow movie because of scenes that could be cut short.
The love between Sulochna and her husband never feels forced and is handled delicately, given that there's always a kid at home. If you to came to see Balan, you get her in leaps and bounds. But, you get her in ordinary, boring scenes that drag on and on. The husband and child are given decently progressive arcs for their stories where they actually go through things (husband through a new boss and a threat to his job at the company he's been loyal to for 12 years, the kid spoiled and bullied and fighting to gain approval).
Balan gets no such arc. First, she's a housewife who really wants to do something with her life. Then, she gets a job as a radio jockey. That's pretty much it. There's the usual melodrama you'd expect in a movie that follows a middle-class family.
What's missing is the real pizzaz you'd expect out of a film about an RJ who plays a sensual lady anyone can talk to. Sulu's sexy voice is great to hear, only she isn't given many scenes to truly shine. We have to make-do with less than 5 scenes of her on the job, which is sad because her tear-jerking resignation is the longest scene in the whole film.
Yes, she spends more time quitting her job than doing it. As an audience, you aren't quite sorry for Sulu as she does it. This is simply because we never see what the journey was like or what it meant to her.
In one of the best scenes that shows how much potential having the RJ on air could have had, Sulu gets a call from an old man who lost his wife, also called Sulu, to old age. When Sulu talks to the man and calls him Sudha like his wife used to, you cannot help tearing up yourself with bittersweet happiness. This scene only proves how wasteful the other scenes were.
What would have saved the movie was this Sulu - more scenes on the radio, children calling Sulu aunty, angry women calling her to complain about their husbands, young girls calling her for real advice on life or men or both, men calling her to learn how to deal with strong women they like - ah, the possibilities. I'd even be ok with some sort of a moral lecture in there if it meant I could get more scenes on the radio.
But for now, I think a better title for the movie would be "Mostly Sulochna".
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/07/23
Full Review
Audience Member
It's as real as it can get. Vidya Balan shows how
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/16/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Beautiful screen play
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/18/23
Full Review
mirza m
'Tumhari Sulu' is a funny and heart-warming tale which despite its slow pace is worth a watch for Vidya Balan.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
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