Raincoat

Director: Rituparno Ghosh

Cast: Ajay Devgan, Aishwarya Rai, Annu Kapoor, Mouli Ganguly, Surekha Sikri

6/10

You don?t see much rain in Raincoat. Most of the time it is just a slow, delicate rhythm of noise falling somewhere as two ex-lovers, Ajay Devgan and Aishwarya Rai meet after six years and share their lives through lies in a dark, damp room choking with antiques. Lives that have stopped like the old clock in the movie, immobile at five to two.

They are losers. He is a former jute mill worker, now jobless and trying to raise money to start a business. She has fallen on hard times too, no thanks to a bad marriage.

But their meeting that rain-soaked afternoon is not about truths or confessions. It is about love that only the desperately miserable are capable of. And it is about a life that could have been.

In many ways, Raincoat, inspired by . Henry?s short story, The Gift of the Magi, is like its lovers. It is a movie that could have been. Undeniably, Rituparno Ghosh has the art and the acuity to involve an audience watching a two-hour private conversation on celluloid. But, disabled by a script that seldom teases the imagination, the director of Unishe April and Dahan is not what he can be. When the film?s protagonists, Aishwarya and Ajay, keep playing games with each other deep into the second-half, one wonders whether Ghosh too is doing the same with you. Raincoat doesn?t engage.

The music partly redeems the movie. Neatly woven like a character in the script, it adds to the film?s sensitive frame. Shubha Mudgal?s ruggedly masculine voice breaks inside you like the barren earth after the first rain. And Gulzar?s poetry is as reassuring as the sight of an old couple on a park bench.

There are other gems to treasure. As the straight-talking but sympathetic house-owner, Annu Kapoor delivers the film?s finest performance. Even Mouli Ganguly handles a small but complicated role with poise. And with a well-worked Bihari accent and a bra strap always peeping from her blouse, Aishwarya turns in a high-quality act. Only Ajay Devgan?s character is grossly underprepared. He plays himself, never becoming the part. This was a role tailor-made for Manoj Bajpai.

Raincoat leaves you with a lingering sense of regret. Ajay would like to go back to the sad mansion and spend another rainy afternoon with Aishwarya. Not many would like to do the same. That, perhaps, is the film?s failure.

Avijit Ghosh