A meticulously sluggish narrative failing to engage audience’s senses
This Friday, the audience have diverse choices, with movies like Roar, Super Nani and Fireflies. If we talk about the latter, Fireflies has lead stars that include Rahul Khanna, Monica Dogra, Arjun Mathur, Aadaya Bedi and Shivani Ghai. It is directed by Sabal Singh Shekhawat. The movie is a one hour forty five minutes film, which is basically pitted with both the good and bad elements. The good thing about the movie is that it encompasses a robust blend of passion and angst, which frames the core story that is being catered via several tangible performances. However, on talking about the bad, the story suffers with some incoherence and is pitted with loopy script writing. In other words, Fireflies simply drags, while the drama does not really remains crisp on a constant basis, giving you too many loo breaks.
Let’s check the plot, the lead character of Shiv played by Rahul Khanna is young and energetic south Bombay based entrepreneur. He is stably married to a lady, wherein he really feels the emptiness and vacuum in his marriage till he finally meets his ex girlfriend called Sharmia. Now, Shiv has a brother called Rana who simply does not hold on his job for long and finally discovers his passion amidst the bylanes of TV somewhere in Bangkok therefore falling in love with any spirited writer and experiences his adversities of unanswered love. In Fireflies, you see a string binding the two brothers, which is basically the common past and thus stained with more amount of pain than the love or affection. In nutshell, Fireflies simply deals with finding the happiness and the right way back to home.
Now, let’s dig deep into the fireflies’ script. Well, the vision of the movie is restricted and limited to its narrator who simply talks about it including the spirit and soul of the same. However, the real problem comes when you see the movie is pitted with myopic elements that try out to join the dots between several expected boxes. You have a deceiving husband, flop relationships; past with tough ordeals put together, which anyone would imagine to watch in it. In perspective of story, you hardly have any power in it since it lacks any novelty and the top of it the poetic and tough to understand storytelling approach. You can easily understand with one of the scenes wherein the estranged couple are seen falling back in love after so many years, the exciting glasses of Cabarnet Sauvignon. You would find particular magic and beauty in their love.
You would find the story staring in a dull fashion with weaker temperament and very much shaky in parts. Yet, you find the light when Shiv and his ex lover are back with their love. More or less the unanswered quality of love in between the two more or less feel very much attractive than Rana and Michelle’s love affair made out of their convenience. You can find the character of Rana very much complex yet under the burden of his guilt. He often tries to return the same, while you can find the undercurrent brooding tension found in between the two brothers. The story of the movie seems to be half-cooked but this is the way it is told, which can hold your heed. It simply compels you to drag you in the flawed characters, which is seen craving for love and emotions and are generally pissed off by their past burdens. You could find loads of literature stuff in the movie, while the strength of the script emerges from the love of heartfelt.
Now, let’s talk about Rahul Khanna. Well, he seems fitting into the bill in a right way with his subtle and incredible acting performance. He is seen emoting the best with all his eyes wherein he is fantastically outright. On the other side, Arjun Mathur who seemed unused in Luck By Chance, the movie of Zoya Akhtar, was seen bringing out the best amidst the dilemma in the life of his character. Monica on the other hand simply failed to impress unlike the way she did in Dhobi Ghat. She was incredibly stiff and was not at all seen fantastic. Shivani Ghai is being incredible cool in her role and the chemistry she shared with Rahul Khanna adding the right beauty in the first half of the movie. Talking about direction, editing and screenplay, overall the movie seems okay.
Fireflies – The Last Word
Fireflies brilliantly collates the idea of coming around in life and the Cecilia Ahernish kind of positive method of managing the unanswered love, which can be seen working as the only crux of the movie. Both Rahul and Arjun was incredible in their acting performances however, the poor climax found in the script simply maligns the beauty of the movie, thus bringing in the inflexible flow in it. To put in simple words, you cannot call Fireflies a brilliant movie, yet can be called as a must watch movie for its incredible tone and pitch for which you can give the rating of 2.5.
