Saturday, May 11, 2013
Gippi
Tween Travails
If it’s a Karan Johar production, the setting
has to be pretty and picturesque—Shimla if not Switzerland. And it is the most
important thing in the world to be popular in class. A tween version of Student Of The Year, anyone?
There are many classic Ugly Ducking clichés,
in Sonam Nair’s film, as Gippi (Riya Vij), a “fat ugly loser” in the words of
the smart, thin, clever girl Shamira (Jayati Modi) finds her groove. The only
good thing is that she does not turn into a swan, but learns to deal with her
duckling-ness, with some help from friends. And Shamira is not the dumb
bimbette, but the over-achiever who wakes at 5 am every morning and never eats
ice-cream.
It is Hollywood summer teen flick, masalafied for the Indian urban teen,
whose only concern is not grades, not the dreaded ‘boards’ but boys. The
audience is also likely to comprise under-15 girls and cute wannabes.
Gippi lives with her mother (Divya Dutta) and
gay (Karan Johar film, don’t forget)
brother (Arbaz Kadwani) and goes to a school, where she hangs out with
specimens even more pitiable than herself—the bespectacled nerds with bad teeth,
and pig-tailed, no-style best friend (a very likeable Doorva Tripathi). Gippi is not particularly scarred (though her
door sticker proclaims Do Not Disturb: Already Disturbed) by her mother’s obvious sorrow, her father’s
impending marriage to a white woman, or bothered about her weight, poor
academic record or general ineptitude.
But when the chain-smoking, older dreamboat Arjun (Taaha Shah) refuses
to acknowledge her as his girlfriend at the hated Shamira’s party, Gippi’s
dreamy world made up of ice cream and Shammi Kapoor songs, crashes. (How many 14-year-old Shammi Kapoor fans can
you find today?)
Now Gippi has to prove that she is not a loser
and net a Prince Charming on the way...and does she? This is a Hindi movie--is there another
option? Mildly amusing, trying very hard
to be meaningful or real in some way (what’s all that about bras and sanitary
pads!), and staying firmly in cheery Wonder
Years territory, kids on summer break could do worse than giggle with
Gippi.
Labels: Cinemaah
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