'The India Story' review: Strong subject, weak execution
What's the story
Kajal Aggarwal and Shreyas Talpade-led The India Story: Slow Poison In Progress, released in cinemas on Friday. Directed by Chettan DK, the courtroom drama is produced and written by Sagar B Shinde and presented by Zee Studios in association with MIG Production & Studios. It underlines the long-term consequences of pesticide farming, but the heavy-handed, preachy storytelling completely eradicates its sincere intentions.
Plot
Follows a father's fight for justice for his daughter
The India Story explores pesticide misuse, food adulteration, and their impact on public health.
The narrative follows Yogesh Patil (Talpade), who loses his 7-year-old daughter Pari to blood cancer, caused by chemicals in food.
Soon after, he seeks the help of an advocate named Archana (Aggarwal) to seek justice and takes farmers, the government, and pesticide companies to court.
#1
Are good intentions enough?
DK and Shinde have brought forth an interesting and urgent story, but they couldn't care less about an engrossing screenplay.
What should have been a riveting courtroom drama becomes a dull, bland affair that meanders aimlessly.
Cliché dialogues, underwhelming characters, and the lack of a strong ensemble mean The India Story doesn't give you much to hold on to.
#2
The characters always remain at a distance
The India Story is ever-desperate to prove its point, so there's no proper beginning or build-up, and everything seems extremely rushed.
Scenes are exaggerated, flimsy, and forgettable, and the film goes in absurd directions, never once stopping to catch its breath.
The makers revel in the choice of their central subject, and everything else is relegated to the sidelines.
#3
More on the above aspect
The film plays out like a tedious science lecture, jumping from one farming fact to the next in a perfunctory manner.
Everything is shot through a melodramatic lens, and despite a crisp, 130-minute runtime, the film drags on multiple occasions.
Courtroom dramas should be highly enthralling, but with gimmicky, predictable dialogues, The India Story's voice is rather muted.
#4
Finally picks up momentum after the interval
The film takes a turn for the better post-intermission, when some narrative choices finally make sense.
We learn more about Yogesh and Pari as we see her harrowing cancer journey.
DK convincingly shows how timely, affordable treatment is a privilege when it should be a universal right.
Pari's death scene is particularly heartbreaking, and Talpade owns the frame as a broken, hapless father.
#5
On Pari-Yogesh's flashback scenes
The mental agony of patients, the long, endless wait in hospital corridors, and the nerve-racking anxiety of a diagnosis—The India Story is at its most watchable in these scenes.
In fact, the two halves feel like they belong to two completely different films.
This overall incongruence harms the film, and DK struggles to commit to one tone.
Verdict
Might work on OTT; 2/5 stars
Manish Wadhwa and Murali Sharma lend gravitas to their roles, but they cannot salvage a helter-skelter script.
Aggarwal is the film's dominant force, but she's not completely believable as a feisty, determined lawyer.
After a rough, wobbly start, The India Story tries to redeem itself in the second half, but great films need much more than just a handful of memorable scenes.
2/5 stars.