My Story Review - A Boring Ensemble Of Cliches

Suhansid Srikanth

Five minutes into Roshni Dinaker's 'My Story', we know the film is a let down despite where it is set, who is in it and how dramatic the moments could have been elevated to. How often a film can fail to leave an impact when it has two intense performers like PrithviRaj and Parvathy. The odds are really less. But Roshni's story breathes out CLICHE in its every kith and kin that we never really care for what happened or what's happening.

A debutant actor (Jai) & an established star actress (Tara) fall in love during their film shoot. While she is toggling with her Portuguese fiancee, who is powerful and supplies funds for her projects.. she decides to elope for a journey with this hero. The chaos and that adventure that precedes then is narrated as flash-cuts in the present where Jai revisits all those places once they travelled together.. but now with Tara's daughter Hima. Hima is also played by Parvathy with a different lookover. And it is an unadulterated torture to see Parvathy with an overt make-up. We literally feel like handing over her a tissue paper to wipe off the lipstick. The make-up and costumes neither convinces us that she is a star nor that she is a brat. It only gives a kind of an aversion. And ironically.. I later found out that the director is a costume designer basically. Hmm!

All the way as the film proceeds, we see things happening out of nowhere. We don't get a convincing reason for a famous, 'known for his temper' kind of director, Williams to choose Jai as his hero in his first meet with him. We don't get why and how Tara fell in love with Jai. Nothing in Jai comes up as a trait to be attractive. He comes off as every other boring character in the film except for one fact that the role is played by PrithviRaj. David, the antagonist of the film is casted with Ganesh Venkatram who is probably the most cliched option to opt for such a role. He performs like a Shakespearian theatre-play villain, modulating in 'I am the villain' tone as rigid as a stone. It is hard to believe any sense of reality in that character. We are told that Tara is a huge star and a SouthIndian phenomenon after Sridevi (at one scene, Williams tell David that he is marrying 'a dream of an entire generation'!) but we never feel it in the film or get why she feels so detached with her profession. Shaan Rahman's songs that pops out as dream duets for every fifteen minutes pulls it down even more.

Even with a Matargashti like song and Roshni's attempt all throughout the film to replicate Imtiaz's Corsica parts of Tamasha.. the scenes and sequence fall off plastic. The film solidly has some 50 to 60 aerial view shots of Lisbon and Portugal.. but we never get the vibes. The ambience is fake. The travel feels doesn't hit us.

The film really kicks in only when the second half opens. Tara takes Jai to an adventurous trip. We see the spirit of artists coming together. We see Parvathy in less or no make-up. We see the natural charm and wit of PrithviRaj. It is only in the auditorium when they make love with a song leading to it, we slightly feel connected to the characters. But by the time, we have crossed almost three-fourth of the film. And, not to mention that the present portion is a cutout bore. It aimlessly leads in Jai searching for David and the conversation when he meets him finally barely leaves an impact. While half-way through the film, we hear that Tara is dead an year ago.. we see Jai grieving. Of all the 'out of nowhere's this film has, one that killed my patience was at the end, when Jai reveals the one twist that anchors this baseless story. It is revealed that Tara is not dead yet. She comes with an old make-up and joins Jai for a happy - emotional climax! Or at least, the director believes so.

Bottomline

 Roshni Dinaker's film with PrithviRaj and Parvathy, set in Portugal delivers one lesson at the rate of 24 frames per second that no matter who is in it, where it is set.. if there is no story, no one can save a film.

Rating : 2/5