Talking Movies

Talking Movies
Talking movies

Friday 10 May 2013

GIPPI: UNCOOL YAWN


When you see two school girls stressing over their growing boob size, you think this is going to be a somewhat realistic and funny take on the pains of growing up. Unfortunately, this turns out to be just a scene probably meant to merely grab attention.

 Yellow and orange feathers, bright , big yellow rim sunglasses and teenage girl dancing on her bed to Shammi Kapoor's hit,"piya tu ab to aaja".This opening shot plays out loud 'Karan Johar".Produced by him and written and directed by Sonam Nair, Gippi is cool in premise but uncool in storytelling.

The film has a few pluses. There is an attempt to tackle a new genre for Hindi cinema: a coming of age in the teen’s story. It sticks to simple and tries to be sweet. Most importantly, it does not have Karan Johar's la la land.

The rest goes a long minus way.

Gippi aka Gurpreet Kaur (Riya Vij) talks in the most irritating and monotonous way possible. That's the first put off. Some better casting here might have helped. But then, weight and Punjabi looks were probably the only consideration.
Gippi is 14,a standard nine student who lives with her single mom called Pappi and brother nicknamed Booboo. She is rude and grumpy both at home and school. It's the misery of teen years.

Understandable until the clichés begin.

Cliché 1. The lead girl is clumsy and falls off classroom chairs. The hottest topper Shameera ( Jayati Modi ) in school taunts her.
Cliché 2. A good-looking boy is the hot girl's best friend. There is also a hot high school boy who smokes non-stop.
Cliché 3. Biology teacher in class teaches the reproductive system and the students giggle.
Cliché 4.  Fat girl is always the butt of classroom jokes.
Cliché 5. Hot girls torture themselves and don't eat ice cream.
Cliché 6. There are only Punjabi families in India.
Cliché 7. Achievers are vamps or villains.
Cliché 8. Perfect and imperfect are the only character types in the entire school world.
Cliché 9. Head girls have to be hot.
Cliché 10. A story has to be a moral science lesson in the end.

By now you get the gist. The film has good intentions but is zero on imagination.

To see good acting, watch the mom in the film, Divya Dutta. To see the story of Gippi, watch the promos.

Yet, the teenagers are likely to enjoy this anyway. Parents will tolerate. As always.


2 comments:

  1. Good interpretation and review of the movie. Thank you for that. But tell me one thing.. what is the 'cliche' in the '3rd cliche' you have put up? All teens or students normally find it funny the first time someone teaches them 'biology' in full class.? We all have gone through it.
    Just a thought..
    Kuldip

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  2. Ah yes,haven't we?:)The reason I find it cliched is that such scenes are expected or seen before.I would like to see something beyond it or with a funny or imaginative take on it.Not that i don't like cliches.Pretty Woman is the biggest cliche but it is done in an interesting manner.
    Thanks for the feedback:)

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