Rahat Kazmi Films, Tariq Khan Production, Zeba Said Films and Jitesh Kumar Films’ Side A & Side B (UA) is set in Poonch village in Kashmir, where extremists have prohibited the villagers from watching films. There’s just one person who has seen a movie in years. He keeps narrating film stories to his two friends. Years later, a filmmaker plans to shoot his film where even watching television is banned.
Rahat Kazmi’s story and screenplay don’t have much masala for entertainment. Consequently, it becomes difficult for the drama to hold the viewers’ attention. Since the story moves on a single track, it also bores the audience after a point of time. Rahat Kazmi’s dialogues are ordinary.
Performances are dull, generally speaking. Tariq Imtiyaz, Shahid Kazmi, Shoib Nikash Shah, Rahul Singh, Jagjeet Singh, Raghubir Yadav, Tariq Khan, Azmat Khwaja, Mir Sarwar and Saki Shah go through their roles without much impact. This is partly because of the dull script too.
Rahat Kazmi’s direction caters more to the festival circuit audience. Rohan Puntembaker’s music is not upto the mark. Laxmi Chand’s camerawork is decent. Other technical aspects, like editing, pass muster.
On the whole, Side A & Side B is a poor show, commercially speaking.
Released on 23-10-’21 at Maxus Borivli (daily 1 show) of Bombay thru Neev Enterprises. Publicity & opening: poor. (The film was to have released on 22-10-’21 but the show on 22nd was cancelled due to absence of audience.)