Jeez,
it's
that
sassy
spunky
urbane
chick
mouthing
that
'f'
word
again!
Last
week
it
was
Rani
Mukherjee
in
No
One
Killed
Jessica.
This
time
it's
the
delightfully
spontaneous
Gul
Panag
playing
a
working-girl
in
an
ad
agency
on
the
verge
of
30
whose
life
isn't
quite
working
out,
watching
her
life
come
apart
at
the
seams.
Omigosh!
This
is
Sex
&
The
City
transposed
to
Mumbai
without
much
mishap.
'Class'
Inside
Handle
With
Care.
No
damaged
goods
here
in
delivering
a
punch-filled
sassy
and
spicy
chick
flick--
thank
God!--though
our
'chick'
Naina
is
quite
a
damaged
good.
Abandoned
by
her
well-to-do
boyfriend,
she
weeps
with
unabashed
self-pity
in
front
of
the
bathroom
mirror
and
pleads
begs
and
whines
with
him
to
"take
her
back".
In
one
of
the
film's
best
sequences,
Naina's
ex-boyfriend
comes
home
to
collect
his
things.
Gul
Panag's
body
language
and
her
desperate
attempts
to
provoke
him
into
emotional
and
sexual
submission
echoed
Shabana
Azmi's
celebrated
'party'
sequence
in
Mahesh
Bhatt's
Arth
where
she
pleaded
with
her
husband
to
take
her
back.
"Is
she
better
in
bed?" Gul
asks
with
poignant
aggression.
The
problem,
you
realize
in
telling
the
tale
of
an
urban
girl's
adventures
in
the
Big
Bad
City
is
the
language.
While
the
debutante
director,
in
control
of
her
narration
and
characters,
gets
the
mood
right,
the
dialogues
often
appear
to
be
straining
for
effect.
Which
chick
of
today
hitting
on
a
guy
in
a
bar
(or
for
that
matter,
anywhere)
uses
a
term
like
'fuddy-duddy'?
The
chick
flick,
as
it
is
rather
crudely
called,
is
an
alien
genre
in
Bollywood.
Debutante
director
Alankrita
Shrivastava
gets
the
tone
and
the
spirit
of
urbane
female
bonding
far
more
accurately
than
in
the
recent
Aisha
which
was
all
about
girlie
accessories.
Turning
30
goes
for
the
inner-wear.
And
tear.
The
music
is
loud
and
played
at
just
the
right
decibel.
The
characters
seem
to
be
grooving
in
rhythm
most
of
the
time.
Once
Purab
Kohli
(rakish,
almost
dropping
in
like
he
does
uninvited
for
coffee
with
Deepika
Padukone
in
that
ad)
makes
a
late
entry
into
Naina's
sterile
life
(a
la
Raj
Kiran
in
Arth)
the
film
kind
of
loses
its
ebullient
spirit.
The
narrative
gets
lazy.
Naina's
30th
birthday
party
just
goes
on
and
on…Naina
and
her
friends
play
'truth
or
dare'.
Two
girls
confess
they're
lesbians…Laughter!
Shock!
Acceptance…warm
hugs.
You
get
the
picture?
But
at
the
end
of
it
all,
we
do
care
about
what
happens
to
Naina's
adrift
life.
How
Naina
gets
back
her
groove
makes
an
interesting
if
at
times
sluggish
story.
The
situations
created
in
the
script
appear
straight
out
of
the
urbane
chaos
of
designer
labels
and
self-preserving
image-creation.
It
is
quite
evident
that
the
director
has
lived
through
many
of
Naina's
experiences.
The
narrative
has
an
endearing
fluidity
and
fluency
to
it.
Girls
here
wanna
have
fun.
But
dammit!
It's
those
guys
who
keep
raining
on
their
parade.
The
unabashed
references
to
the
protagonist's
sex
life
and
physicality
are
new
to
Hindi
cinema.
Future
shock?
Gul
Panag
plays
Naina
with
a
disarming
mix
of
transparency
and
confusion.
She
lets
the
character's
strength
and
vulnerability
hang
out
in
the
same
line
of
vision
creating
a
world
that
is
at
once
lived-in
and
unexplored.
What
a
wonderful
experience
just
watching
Gul
light
up
the
screen
once
again
after
Dhoop
and
Dor.
The
supporting
actors
are
all
like
people
you've
bumped
into
in
Mumbai
in
an
elevator
or
while
waiting
in
line
to
get
into
a
multiplex
to
watch
a
film
like
Turning
30.
New
cinematographer
Akshay
Singh
shoots
the
characters
in
a
way
that
they
appear
in
a
far
better
light
than
they
would
otherwise.
Fresh,
feisty
and
well-designed
with
above-average
technical
virtues
Turning
30
is
more
a
chic
than
a
chick
flick.
Nothing
fuddy-duddy
about
it.
Story first published: Monday, January 17, 2011, 12:55 [IST]