The Other Way Movie Review: Imtiaz Ali’s New Film Is Atrocious!

A Short Film Written & Directed by Imtiaz Ali

Starring Pavail Gulati,Shreya Choudhary

Rating: *(1 Star)

Apart from a very engaging actor Pavail Gulati, Imtiaz Ali’s  new short-film The Other Way has only one takeway at the end: the realization that the director needs  to take a long break from filmmaking.

Perhaps  Imtiaz needs  to grow  a garden for some time. Just to see what real creativity is all about. As a movie maker he seems to have  hit a massive roadblock, what  with his  last two feature films Tamasha and  When Harry Met Sejal turning out to be major disappointments from  a director who once gave us the sparkling Socha Na Tha, the life-changing Jab We Met and  the  underratedLove Aaj Kal.

 Imtiaz wants us to believe that that love aaj kal, is  like that  only. Young people afraid  of  commitment to long-lasting relationships. This theme which  runs, nay limps, through all  his  recent film reaches a kind of  absurdist acme  in The Other Way(a title which on some level implies the director’s movement away from the seriousness, albeit a flawed seriousness, of Highway).

The Other Way is not only short  , it’s also stupid to the point of being  annoying. The two main characters are a young footloose photographer (played effectively by Pavail Gulati) and a  could-be runaway bride(Shreya Chudhary). The girl who gallivants  with a stranger moments from the mandap,  is so daft,  you want to shake  her by her shoulders to remind her that love, marriage, commitment are no ideas to be played  around with.

 Not that  it is her fault. Imtiaz Ali’s whose drawling voiceover we hear throughout the  10-min film(why does the  director need  to explain  such a short film?!) pulls the two characters through an embarrassing  adventure that can best described as Jab Geet MetSejal. The female protagonist is as headstrong  as Kareena Kapoor in Jab We Met but as misguided in her zest for life as AnushkaSharma  in  Jab Harry Mery Sejal.It’s obvious her parents didn’t teach her that life is not only about doing what an individual wants, it’s also about being considerate towards the feelings of those who matter in  your life.

 Utterly selfcentred she  takes off a wild safari of selfdiscovery on  the eve of her marriage. The director seems to enjoy creating protagonists who have no sense of  a social responsibility.To add  to  the  feeling  of a disheartening pandemonium  of  priorities  the story is narrated  to us backwards. That is to say,  the film starts at the end  and ends at  the beginning.

I say, whatever you do with such pretentious garbage , it will only end at one place. In the pits. The title is  actually a warning forImtiaz Ali’s admirers. Look The Other Way.