Jab Khuli Kitaab Movie Review: Pankaj Kapur and Dimple Kapadia’s slice-of-life comedy is well-meaning but messy

Jab Khuli Kitaab Review:

As the title hints, Jab Khuli Kitaab begins novelistically. We see a day in the life of an old man, Gopal (Pankaj Kapur), in a house in a picturesque hill station as he gets his comatose wife Anusuya (Dimple Kapadia) ready for the day. He updates her about the happenings in his life, which trees are blooming, how he negotiated with the gardener, things like that, as he proceeds to clean her arms with a wet towel. Then he bids her goodbye before going for a walk, but not without seeking a promise: ‘Don’t leave, till I return.’

Written and directed by: Saurabh Shukla

Cast: Pankaj Kapur, Dimple Kapadia, Aparshakti Khurana, Samir Soni and Nauheed Cyrusi

Streaming on: ZEE5

An old man’s undying love for his dying wife. The Saurabh Shukla directorial initially seems like an Amour (2012) style romance-tragedy film. But then we are shown that the elderly couple’s kids and grandkids are also visiting the house and there is a discussion over pulling the plug on Anusuya. Now the film seems to be getting into the territory of a Ramprasad Ki Tehrvi (2019) like funeral-comedy. But before any genre is fixed, Anusuya wakes up from her coma and spills a long-held secret to her husband Gopal. That long ago she had a liaison with the latter’s colleague, who was also a poet, and that their eldest Param (Samir Soni) is not Gopal’s child. It gets the conservative and rigid Gopal livid as he decides to file for a divorce. This is not a love story.

Jab Khuli Kitaab tries to find answers to difficult and intriguing questions. Is it ok for a couple to divorce in the final stage of their lives? Does one wrong night undo all the bright days of togetherness? But the film gets into a comical space and in a bid to handle heavy themes with a light touch often inadvertently makes light of otherwise serious situations. It’s well-intentioned but not well-executed. The humour is not sharp enough and the drama gets melodramatic at times. Gopal and Anusuya’s son-in-law is going through a financial crisis, their specially-abled son is about to get married, Anusuya has apparently never liked her daughter-in-law because she is a Parsi. The film, adapted from a play by actor-director Saurabh, has multiple things happening and is unable to bring them all together cohesively. Apart from Gopal and Anusuya, other characters seem to exist only to further the plot and don’t seem to have much development of their own.

Aparshakti Khurana, however, sparks up the narrative when it starts lagging. He plays the animated lawyer who gets the head-scratching task of divorcing the old couple. Aparshakti essays the role of the small-time advocate with an adorable labrador-energy. He also is part of the film’s most entertaining sequences.

Jab Khuli Kitaab is a sweet, breezy film which lacks necessary depth. It doesn’t get into the complexities of relationships and is content with floating on the surface. It loses out on nuance as it desperately tries to present uncomfortable truths in palatable ways. Interesting angles like Aparshakti’s character’s romantic interest in a female judge who might be going through a difficult marriage are brushed past.

Kapur and Kapadia gel well as a bickering old couple. Kapur exhibits a signature, dismissive huff and effectively plays a difficult man, unable to break out of his rigid notions. Kapadia can sometimes get too melodramatic but still offers a solid presence as Anusuya. Jab Khuli Kitaab is a light-hearted, afternoon watch which touches upon some important themes. It’s just that it could have been much, much more.