305. Notebook; movie review

NOTEBOOK
Cert 12A
112 mins
BBFC advice: Contains moderate violence, threat

Get the hankies ready, this is a rarity - an out-and-out Bollywood weepie.
The hero (Zaheer Iqbal) kicks nobody's ass and there is no villainous corruption. Indeed the 'lovers' don't even kiss.
Ok, it wouldn't be an Indian film if there weren't a few slaps here and there (does that happen in real life there?) but with those brief exceptions, this is pure schmaltz.
So, those with a heart will probably be all of a flutter over the army veteran-turned primary school teacher and his obsession with a young woman he has never met.
Iqbal stars as Kabir, a man who is so lost that he volunteers for a teaching post on a remote island where there are only a handful of pupils.
He discovers that he is taking over from Firdaus (Pranutan Bahl) to whom the children were devoted.
Without electricity or running water, let alone Wifi, Kabir has lost his bearings but finds guidance from a diary (aka Notebook), written by Firdaus, of her experiences on the island.
It is then that he begins to fall in love with the soul who could have cared so much for her charges while having to fend off her own personal problems.
In parallel to Kabir's story, Nitin Kakkar's film then shows Firdaus as an accomplished teacher and a bride-to-be whose fiance is opposed to her working in the back of beyond.
The glue which holds Kabir and Firdaus together is their attachment to their tiny class and their desire to do their best for the children whose families have very little ambition.
And that's it really - the whimsy of both is to dream about a better life where they are properly understood.
Only the audience can tell whether that will or won't be possible and until there is an obvious answer, schmaltz wins the day.

Reasons to watch: Cute kids and an easygoing story
Reasons to avoid: Doesn't add up to much

Laughs: A couple of chuckles
Jumps: None
Vomit: None
Nudity: None
Overall rating: 6.5/10

Did you know? There is an actual school in the interiors of Siang district in Arunachal Pradesh has only FOUR students! No teacher has attended school in several years so a young village boy - not much older than the students themselves - stands in for the teacher and helps the children along.

The final word. Zaheer Iqbal: "I’m good with kids and we get along instantly, maybe we are on the same wavelength. I also like doing a different kind of work, I hope that someday the audience will say “let's go see Zaheer’s film, I’m sure it will be different” so I want to continue to do films that are different. Bolly News UK

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