Thank You For Coming , A Crazy  Ride Into Finding A Life Beyond The Big O

Thank You For Coming(Starring  Bhumi Pednekar, Shehnaaz Gill, Dolly Singh, Kusha Kapila , Shibani Bedi

Directed by  Karan  Boolani

In my favourite  moment in this  amiably anarchic rom-com, the  well-behaved utterly devoted fiancé  to  out uncontrollable tantrum-throwing  heroine , after she breaks  their  engagement  , says to her, “Don’t worry about me.I am happy the way I am. It is you I am worried about.”

What does one do with the craziness of  Kanika  Kapoor?

Amidst all the  beery  blaring  bacchanalia and  shrieks of inebriated  joy  Thank You For Coming has a sensitive  heart beating gently, reminding  women that the  biological clock need  not  dictate the way they lead their lives.

 Bhumi Pednekar, in a  rousing performance,  plays Kanika Kapoor the  youngest  in a family of women where  the grandmother(Dolly Ahluwalia) is  chilled out but in a restrained way. The mother played with  passionate intensity  by Natasha Rastogi is the  wild one .Sadly, or not so  sadly—depending on which way your  spirits spill—Kanika seems  to have taken after  her mother. She  dates several men  but doesn’t get anywhere  close to  a physical or emotional  closure.

And when she finds  a decent man(Pradyuman Singh, excellent) she  doesn’t find him physically exciting.In its  highly  whimsical world of  unpredictable  temperamental  femininity(these tantrum-throwing women of all ages and shapes, behave as  it i is their time of  the  month  all year  round) Thank You For Coming seeks out its own central theme  from its temporal design :  should  woman seek stability or excitement  in their  life partners?

I am not too convinced by the conclusions that the erratic but exhilarating  script  draws from its  heroine’s  clearly  uncontrollable life. But yes, Kanika  does find her mojo at the end, though the do-it-yourself formula seems  more a compromise than  a victory.

Bhumi  Pednekar in her most  uninhibited  performance  play a character who tests  everyone’s patience , without  testing  the audiences’ patience. She  is  vulnerable  bratty over-pampered  and ill-prepared  for the  vicissitudes  of life. But  she admits to her  failings, falls with her follies and gets up to start again.

Kanika  is  a  fighter,  and more power to her. The men come out surprisingly weak in  the story,barring  Sushant  Divgikar who is  a hoot as  a crossdresser. His dance  to Pari hoon main is  a showstopper. I can’t say the same for the  entire film which  tries to say much more than Kanika Kapoor and her gang of  aggressive  friends  can  handle. There is as a  teenage victim of  a sexual crime (Saloni Daini) whose pain doesn’t quite fit into  Kanika’s scheme  of  things. Kanika, you see,  is  an incorrigible   attention-seeker. But once she gets it,she  doesn’t know how  to handle it.