Hichki Review

Rani, not just by her name, but is also the queen of the biggest production house in Bollywod- The Yash Raj. Though Rani has been very selective about her films in the last decade, this can be considered as a comeback, as Mardaani didn’t quite hit the bulls eye. With Yash Raj backing her Hichki, Rani Mukherjee presents another movie which is not necessarily a typical woman-centric but a lighter film yet making a good impact, like what we witnessed recently – Nil BatteySanatey and Tumhari Sulu where characters are real and not begging for sympathy from the audience. Hichki fortunately makes a good impact!

The plot is based on a neurological disorder called Tourette’s syndrome, where the person has motor tics. In fact, the character is inspired by a popular motivational speaker Brad Cohen who had this disorder. The movie is customized remake of ‘Front of the class’ which in turn was inspired by the book written by the Mr. Cohen. The story is about Naina Mathur (Rani Mukherjee) who has this Tourette syndrome, and aspires to be a school teacher. With such a speech defect, it is difficult for open to manage a teaching job. Naina is strong and doesn’t have a self-pity. Her parents are played by Sachin and Surpiya Pilgaonkar. The first challenge she faces in the story is to get recruited as the teacher, and the second is a challenge she takes up to deal a bunch of notorious students and make them pass the finals.

The movie is more of a cool slice-of-life genre, than making it look a serious film like TaareZameen Par and the likes, where you are manipulated to cry. Director Siddhart Malhotra makes it look very natural. He doesn’t try to be extra motivational (of course Rani was all over the media and internet trying to do that to promote the film). Nonetheless, being subtle, the character seemed inspiring. The graph however falls in the second half though and a tad predictable at some points. Also, Rani’s character though is a protagonist, she’s highlighted a bit more, eventually making for a more screen space to make you saturated.

Performances wise, Rani is of course the scene stealer, enacting the syndrome really well, and not over-doing it. Of course, it was nowhere close to Black but good enough to create a strong impact and make the character believable. Neeraj Kabi makes his presence felt once again after an extremely natural performance in Talwar. The bunch of kids were very raw and suited their respective roles. Music of the film is not up to the mark. A movie with such a concept could have some nice numbers like TaareZameen Par.

To sum it up, Hichki has its own set of hichkis, but doesn’t stop from creating a decent impact. This might not be an outstanding film, but worth a watch for its subtle yet effective dealing of a health issue , to make it look very normal.