SLICE OF URBAN LIFE, DONE UP IN TASTEFUL SMADES

Onebytwo

STARRING: Abhay Deal, Preeti Desai

DIRECTOR: Devi ka Bhagat *** t takes a while to figure out why this deliciousl y yummy concoction about urban aspirations is called One By Two And it would be a crime more criminal than character assassination to tell you why the two main characters in the film never meet til l the closing moments

This is a film that wears its heart on its sleeve And it doesn't rol l up that sleeve when the narrative is endangered by uncomfortable twists of circumstances Devika Bhagat loves her protagonists Samara and Amit, quirks, excesses, flatulence and all.

The urban fable constructs Samara and Amit's dreams as a spiral of frustrations. We really don't expect these two peopl e to come out triumphant at the end And rea ll y they don't. What they do is to connect themselves as very believable young people with dreams that seem to be picked out from the streets rather than manufactured on a cinematic stage

He likes to pound the guitar. She loves to dance She is on that crazy journey through the dance-real ity show, the kind that Anushka Sharma embraced in Aditya Chopra's Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi to fob off a housewife's boredom

The dysfunctional girl Samara (effectively played by Preeti Desai) has serious dreams that seem driven more by her alcoholic mother's frustrations. Indeed some ofthe film's most effective drama emerges in the mother-daughter scenes. Quite understandable, when the mother is played by the ever- dependable Lilette Dubey

There are some very interesti ng inci dental characters lining up to l end a sense of optimism to the central dilemma of two characters who never seem to get their fundas right Among the per ipher al characters, Abhay 's two clingy office col leagues make an interesting study in work- place behaviour.

I liked the spir ited girl (played by Yashika Dhillon) who plays the brassy bahenji chosen as a bahu by Abhay's over-zealous parents (Rati Agnihotri and Jayant Kripalani, making a cute if cliched 'careless' couple).

Besi d es the fact that the real-life Abhay-Preeti pai r never meet till the end, the remarkable thing about One By Two is that it weaves interesting episodes into inherently ro utine lives, making their anonymous existence seem far more special than it actually is. That 's the magic created by the skilled writing, convincing characterisation and of course credible performances

While Preeti as the day- dreamer tripping over h er dance shoes to get to the finishing lines, gets a tailor- made role (including a scene justifying her poor command over the Hindi language), Abhay clocks up a very assu red workingclass hero's character. He is bitter but not broken; bewi l dered by the vagaries of life, but never unamused by the irony of it all. He i s everyman, and yet special i n his ordinariness

As for the film, the quirky mood is never too far off from the smooth surface Pushing its way out of the film's inner-worl d, the characters' clamorous se lf - projections become more amusing than tragic when weighed against the sheer commonness of their dreams

There is a warm l ived -in feeling to Bhagat's directorial debut. It may not win your heart as uncond itionally as Farhan Akhtar's debut Oil Chahta Hai But there's a w i nsome, bouncy and ebullient quality to th is take on urban aspi rations

Irresistible in parts, One By Two never d i sappoints

SUBHASH K. JHA