Doordarshan: Copycat that didn’t quite kill the rat!

What happens when you draw inspiration (pun intended) from a beautiful movie and fail to ignite the spark? That precisely explains Doordarshan! Director Gagan Puri tries to take us back in time with his movie titled Doordarshan which is primarily a badly done copy of Good Bye Lenin a German movie released in 2003.

The Story Line

Darshana(Dolly Ahluwalia) falls into a coma state in the 90s and wakes up after a span of 35 years. Sunil (Manu Rishi Chaddha), her child was in school in the 90s is now a married man and has 2 teenage children. All’s not well between him and his childhood love and wife Priya (Mahie Gill) and they are about to get divorced. Things turn when Darshana wakes up from coma and is mentally still in the 90s. Doctor cautions that Darshana must not face any emotional trauma and thus, Sunil and Priya try to recreate the era of the 90s. Back then, Doordarshan was the only TV network. Sunil ropes in his children and their friends to restore Doordarsan. Fun begins as the children and friends hardly know anything about Doordarshan.

The Hits

The film has more misses than the hits. The only silver lining to an ostensibly boring movie is Sunil’s character. Manu Rishi Chaddha plays his role well with subtlety and is able to emotionally connect with the audience.

The Misses

Starting from mediocre direction to a largely average script and forced humor, Doordarshan fails to awe the audience. The plot itself is weak and unconvincingly built. No attempt is made to exploit the era of the good old times. Even the attempt to recreate the old news (theme copied from Good Bye Lenin) lacks depth and humour. It’s a sheer surprise that Darshana is unable to spot the vast age difference in people around her.

Speaking of acting, Darshana’s portrayal as a typical Punjabi grandmother is too loud and unbearable. The movie tries to ignite humour in fights between Sunil and his wife Priya, the perpetual arguments between Sunil and his landlord cum childhood friend landlord Rajesh Sharma, Sunny(Shardul , Sunil’s son and his love interest and his keenness towards literature. All the characters except for Manu Rishi Chaddha are unnecessarily loud.

Our Take

In the days of Netflix and Hotstar, you can afford to give a miss to Doordarshan.