Movie Review: Purani Jeans, the storyline is solid

Movie review: Purani Jeans – I enjoyed ‘Purani Jeans’ for its freshness in the face of familiarity, and a story that holds all the way to the end.

Summary

I enjoyed ‘Purani Jeans’ for its freshness in the face of familiarity, and a story that holds all the way to the end, says Indian Express critic Shubhra Gupta.

Movie Review: Purani Jeans – A few times, the drama threatens to get exaggerated. But ‘Purani Jeans’, despite its we- know-where- this- coming-of-age arc is going, gets a lot else right.

Star cast: Tanuj Virwani, Aditya Seal, Izabelle Leite, Param Baidwaan, Raghav Raj Kakkar, Kashyap Kapoor, Sarika, Rati Agnihotri, Rajit Kapoor, Manoj Pahwa

Director : Tanushri Chattrji Bassu

I went into ‘Purani Jeans’ expecting nothing, and was rewarded by a film that kept me with it. The storyline is solid even if not terribly new. It has believable characters, and an arc that moves and is moving.

Anyone who has grown up with a gang of inseparables will instantly connect with these Kasauli Cowboys. Sid (Tanuj Virwani) is a fatherless boy whose mom (Rati Agnihotri, also his mother in real life) has set her heart on his going to the US. Sam (Aditya Seal) is a ‘khandaani raees’ and has an alcoholic mother (Sarika) who lives unhappily with her second husband (Kapoor). The other three, Bobby, Suzy and Tino (Baidwan, Kakkar and Kathuria respectively) make up the group. Sid and Sam have known each other since they were five, and are the kind of friends of that are constantly out of each other’s houses, know each other’s secrets. Trouble begins, as it does usually, with a girl. Pretty Nayantara (Izabelle Leite) arrives in town and catches the boys’ attention. Love strikes and things change forever.

I have a couple of quibbles. The guys all look just a tad older than they should: this is a gang that’s giving entrance exams for higher studies, so presumably school and college-leaving is behind them. But this story of first love and heartbreak feels like it belongs to adolescents, and adolescents have a gawkiness and gangliness that’s unmistakable. These boys have gone past it. Also, some of the plot points are predictable: you know, for example, how one of the main characters will end up, right from when he shows up. A few times, the drama threatens to get exaggerated. But ‘Purani Jeans’, despite its we- know-where- this- coming-of-age arc is going, gets a lot else right.

The film is set in the 90s, and much of the film is spent looking back, but the nostalgia never becomes mawkish. It opens with Sid in New York, where he has been for a dozen years. Circumstances compel a return to Manali, and the flashback takes us to when the gang was young and carefree. Livewire Sam organises the parties and the fun times, and song and dance follows. But again, it is kept in check: it’s a bunch of best friends goofing around, continued…

Movie Review: Purani Jeans, the storyline is solid