Review: GONE KESH

Charming tale of adversity told well...

2 stars

Mini Review:

A sweet little film that makes several inroads into your heart. Touching, funny and everyone acts brilliantly. A story of a young girl in a small town who begins to lose her hair and has to live through razing from her schoolmates and then lives an embarrassed, fearful life as a young girl through college and work life. The whole cast does such a good job, this film deserves a watch.

Main Review:

When society is obsessed with long hair, what does a young girl do when she begins to lose hers?

Enakshi Dasgupta lives with her mother and father in a small town of Siliguri and has won many certificates at school for her dance. She’s sixteen and realises that her hair loss is alarming and visible when her mum discovers lots of hair in the shower and her classmates tease her about having islands on her head.

That children can be mean is known, but this happy sixteen year old has to battle more demons. She is now so friendless, she eats her lunch alone, does not play with other kids (for fear of razing) and sits at the back of the bus where no breeze will show her bald patches to everyone. Her hair loss is so alarming she has to wear a scarf to school. Shweta Tripathi plays Enakshi with so much confidence your respect for her commitment to the role grows as you see her hair disappear completely.

Deepika Amin and Vipin Sharma play her parents. There’s lots of empathy, humor and good writing here which is a rare thing these days. And they do everything parents in a small town can do for their daughter. They take her to doctors, try home remedies and worry for her…

There is plenty of humor despite the situation that seems to serious. Especially when they try and get her married off. And when the shopkeepers chat about traveling on an airplane. While you and I are so blase about air travel, you understand how important it is for Enakshi’s parents to dream about going to see the Taj Mahal some day. Humor is stupendous when Enakshi is pursued by a young lad who is hesitant to ask her out and gets advice from his best friend. Jitendra Kumar makes for a pleasant love interest for Enakshi.

Of course, Enakshi’s test comes when she can face her inner demons and stand confidently in front of the world. Initially you think that the story is going to be predictable, but the little film surprises you.

(this review appears on nowrunning dot com)