POPCORN REVIEWSS

Written by Vibhu Puri and Prasshant Jha, the tenderness in Gustaakh Ishq emerges from its setting that oozes of an old school charm. The narrow bylanes of Old Delhi in the year 1998 are home to an old printing press owned by Nawabuddin Saifuddin Rahman Rizvi ‘Salaam’ (Vijay Varma) where ‘Salaam’ isn’t a part of his name (something that becomes a subtly running joke in the film at some point). There is a hint of sweetness that cuts his melancholy given his love for poetry and shayaris, something that prompts him to search for yesteryear’s artist Aziz (Naseeruddin Shah), just so Nawab can publish his poetry in his newspaper to save his printing press. The underlying emotion remains of selfishness but the feeling is so gentle in the wake of the love for poetry that domimates the character of Nawab.

The drama initially focuses on the dynamics between characters really well – be it Nawab’s bittersweet relationship with his younger yet dominating sibling Jumman (Rohan Verma), or his sweeter glances with Aziz’s daughter Mannat (Fatima Sana Shaikh). Both these dynamics have a charm of their own – Nawab remains the understated character in each of these dynamics, often neglecting the domination of Jumman in the wake of love that he has for him, and deftly approaching Mannat who has stolen his heart through her glances, something that prompts him to be bear to her about his intentions and feelings while also stumbling upon her traumatic past. But the soul dynamic of the film remained the bond that Nawab shares with Aziz. The ‘Shagird’ was never portrayed so beautifully.

The proceedings are laced with poetry and stillness such that the emotions actually erupt from the softness of the shayaris. And the drama works best when the focus remains on Aziz and Nawab whose destinies and emotions remain intertwined, something that results in some memorable exchanges between the duo. But, it remains such a shame that the same kind of emotions are reduced to being hollow during Nawab’s moments with Mannat. As a result, my emotions felt like a rollercoaster given how it zoomed me in and out of the drama consistently. I wished for a little more stillness, a little more heart in a budding love story that did show a lot of promise to begin with. Or alternately, completely shifting the focus to the core dynamics of the film that did boast of a world building straight from a Sanjay Leela Bhansali film – with still frames and a peck of light seeping through that would give you an impression of a cold winter day in Delhi cut through by a hint of sunlight.

The issue for me starts in the second hour when the writing loses focus of the core conflict in play. It tries to be many things at once – a sibling rivalry featuring a generational gap and a difference of opinions, a love story that loses its objectivity given the lack of a central conflict, a master-shagird that still holds the base but let down by the inability to tap into the complexity of the conflict. As a result, the proceedings are abrupt too – character arcs are cut short with characters either disappearing or having an abrupt ending, some rather questionable plot twists that are injected only to add to the runtime even as the shayaris progressively dry up. It almost felt like an extended montage used to skip through important events rather than staying focused on the characters and emotions, that made this drama hollow towards the end, something that didn’t make me care enough for its characters despite a palpable conflict with respect to Aziz’s past. It felt like a cricket match in which the batters were in control only to lose their way towards the end, and in the process, the match too. I really wanted to like this film a little more given its ambition, but with the abruptness being a flaw, it did feel like a heartbreak. Guess this Ishq was Gustaakh after all, given how it squandered a good start.