New Delhi: 'GoodBye' is an average slice-of-life family drama starring Amitabh Bachchan, Neena Gupta, Rashmika Mandanna, Pavail Gulati and Ashish Vidyarthi among others. The Vikas Bahl directorial has its moments in parts but in its entirety is a poorly patched story with only genuine emotion by its performers that redeem the film.
'GoodBye' opens with the most cringe opening sequence song, so forcefully put into the beginning that it does reduce the audience's expectation of what is to follow. Thankfully, the film gets better the next morning when Rashmika's character( Tara Bhalla) receives a call from her father( Harish Bhalla, portrayed by Amitabh Bachchan) that her mother( Neena Gupta as Gayatri) has passed away. Everything else that ensues is what forms the crux of 'GoodBye'.
Perhaps, a slightly awkward subject to deal with, death and life as we know it post-pandemic; the confusion of portraying the same in modern times riddles 'GoodBye'.
There are parts where the hypocrisy of the 'death' system and the rituals which go in traditional households are satirically exposed. In other parts, a modern pujari like character in the form of Sunil Grover enters the film to justify rituals which are performed for the 'moksha' of a departing soul and mixes logic to elevate the film's premise.
'GoodBye' explores the minutest of details associated with 'death' in households and sometimes delves into them to an extent that you forget that this is a feature film. Makers get lost in their material but thanks to the performances of its leading cast, most cringe moments are saved from becoming a moral lesson on 'generation gap'.
Without ridiculing the premise of the ambition of 'GoodBye' to perhaps bring a sense of self-examination on how we deal with death in a family today, the movie is more so about the generation gap between parents and their children.
And, this is exploited through interlacing shots, one liners, memories in retrospect etc.
Vikas Bahl also tries to experiment with the form of the 'GoodBye' through an animated love story of yesteryear playing out between a young and dashing Amitabh Bachchan from the 70s and Neena Gupta. For instance; this entire sequence happens through a photo album which in turn reunites a sulking-angry father with a stubborn-angry daughter.
In another part, there is a scene where Sunil Grover is bringing the Hindu mythology story of King Shantanu through animation to bring home the fact why ashes of the dead are dispersed in Ganga after people die. Here, Sunil Grover's character gets to voice the best of lines, something that might evoke a sense of nostalgia in audiences with 'kahanyian hi to duniya chalati hai' etc.
Many such dialogues and one-liners in the film work as eye-openers and moments which initiate Tara( Rashmika) into a more tolerant person, a coming-of-age side arch in the film of her character.
The background score of 'GoodBye' is another cringe element that reduces the intensity of emotions the actors in the film are trying so hard to bring forth. 'Mai Re' for example being played everytime every single character thinks of their dead mother is way too much a test on patience.
As for performances, Amitabh Bachchan is superb in portraying a disgruntled father undergoing abandonment anxiety. He also gets to flex years of acting experience when he talks to an urn of his dead wife's ashes.
Rashmika Mandanna portrays her parts well and lends the necessary emotive depth to 'GoodBye'. Her effort in mouthing dialogues in Hindi shows, but her performance overpowers this.
Pavail Gulati, Ashish Vidyarthi, Sahil Mehta, Shivin Narang, Abhishekh Khan, Elli AvrRam, all try to add layers to the film as do Neena Gupta and Sunil Grover who get slightly better character sketches.
What doesn't work in 'GoodBye' is the length and the screenplay. The film is a disjointed array of sequences and scenes, some of which shine, some of which are typical and cringe, and some totally unnecessary. Why would a film like 'GoodBye' need a party song as the opening sequence song when there is one around it's credits?
Long silences, pauses and extra moments to focus on close up shots of Rashmika's character feel overstayed. The need to add comedy and drama through actors like Sunil Grover and Ashish Vidyarthi, love between two adopted children; there is so much going in this family ensemble that the director tries hard to give a closure to the film somehow.
So much is the effort to give direction to the film that by the time post-interval film began, you are left wondering, what and where on earth is it going? What more is to be shown that hasn't been put across already?
Yet, Vikas Bahl does manage to surprise with a few elements like the animated romance mentioned before, but nothing more than that.
All one is left thinking is when is 'GoodBye' going to end and why the need to connect all dots and give answers to everything? Sometimes, filmmakers should trust the intelligence of their audience and leave something for them to take away from a piece of art rather than spoon feed catharsis to an extent that we walk away as empty-headed and unaffected as the time one walks into the theatre to watch a film.