Pen India Ltd. and Ajay Devgn Ffilms’ Helicopter Eela is the story of a single mother and her only son.
Eela (Kajol) is a budding singer who gets married to Arun (Tota Roy Chowdhury) and buries all her dreams of becoming a Bollywood singer once she gives birth to a son, Vivan. Soon, her husband leaves her and she has to fend all alone for herself and her little son. Eela’s life now revolves around Vivan. Her day begins and ends with Vivan. In fact, she becomes paranoid about him.
Years pass by. Vivan (Riddhi Sen) is now in college and although he loves his mother a great deal, he resents her overbearing nature and often wonders why she doesn’t do something herself so that she can have a life of her own. Their conversation gives her the idea to rejoin college – and that’s what Eela does. She joins the same college as son Vivan. Sitting in the same classroom as his mother embarrasses Vivan but he is fine as long as she doesn’t follow him everywhere he goes in college.
One day, Eela becomes responsible for the break-up of Vivan’s friend, Yash (Chirag Malhotra), and his girlfriend. That’s like the proverbial last nail in the coffin. An angry Vivan storms out of his house, leaving a devastated Eela feeling miserable.
Why does Vivan take such a harsh step? Do the mother and son make up with each other? If so, how? If not, why not? Does Arun return to Eela and Vivan?
Mitesh Shah and Anand Gandhi have penned a heartfelt story about a single mother and her son. However, it takes too long to come to the point or the crux. The first half is often repetitive and, therefore, moves at a slow pace. It gets boring at several times because it appears to not be moving. Scenes of Eela being bothered and concerned about Vivan and his food etc. do get on the audience’s nerves because not much else happens for some time. The reason why Arun walks out on his family also seems silly, to say the least. However, the viewer likes it when Eela starts going to Vivan’s college as a student herself. The duo’s screenplay moves at a leisurely pace before interval but catches steam in the second half. The drama picks up beautifully when Eela becomes the reason for the break-up of Yash and his girlfriend. From this point, the screenplay moves at a fast pace and engages the viewers completely. The drama now becomes emotional too and often makes the audience cry and even sob. The strong-hearted would at least feel emotionally moved or choked. The climax is less filmy and more realistic – and, therefore, not too predictable. The twist in the climax is least expected, making it more real. But the viewers do feel that Vivan did not need to take so long to convey to his mother what he wanted to. His round-and-about manner of conveying appears weird because he shares such a fantastic relationship with his mother that going round and about should never have been an option. It is for these reasons that despite the engaging second half, the impact is diluted. If emotions are the strong point of the post-interval portion, the light moments in the first half as well as second half do gladden the heart and evoke laughter but at places only. Mitesh Shah’s dialogues are very realistic and often touch the heart.
Kajol is outstanding in the role of Eela. Her character is layered and it is delightful to watch Kajol perform with ease and passion. If she is phenomenal in light scenes, she is mind-blowing in the emotional and dramatic ones. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Kajol comes absolutely alive as the effervescent Eela. Riddhi Sen is truly terrific as Vivan. Seeing him stand up to Kajol is in itself worthy of the highest praise. Riddhi is such a natural and effortless actor that no amount of praise is too much for him. Like Kajol, Riddhi too immerses himself completely into the character. He uses his body language, facial expressions and voice to the hilt. In one word, he is too endearing to be true! Tota Roy Chowdhury is fair as Arun. Neha Dhupia lends lovely support in the role of Padma. Zakir Hussain makes his presence felt as the college principal. Chirag Malhotra has his moments as Yash. Kamini Khanna is alright as Arun’s mother. Sushmita Bhandari (as Nidhi), Rashi Mal (as Nikita) and Muskan Bamne (as Dipti) lend good support. Bhaweeka Chaudhary (as Monisha), Koustuv Ghosh (as Kaustuv), Sagar Kudyar (as Sagar), Bishwadeep Dipak Chatterjee (as the sound engineer), Rupert Fernandes (as the music director), baby Rushika (as infant Vivan), Dev Pratik Parmar (as the one-year-old Vivan), Runav Shah (as the three-year-old Vivan), Hearty Singh (as the eight-year-old Vivan), RJ Alok (as the college professor), Maya Sarkar (as Eela’s neighbour), Simran Bakshi and Ajitesh Gupta (both as event organisers) and Tania Dutta (as event master of ceremonies) are adequate. Ila Arun, Anu Malik, Shaan, Baba Sehgal, Shibani Kashyap and Mahesh Bhatt make their presence felt in brief guest appearances.
Pradeep Sarkar’s direction is very sensitive. His narrative style engages the audiences. How he consumes the viewers completely with the emotional drama in the last part of the film is praiseworthy. Also creditable is his extraction of great work from his two main actors, Kajol and Riddhi Sen. Amit Trivedi’s music, with additional music by Daniel B. George (‘Chand lamhe’ and ‘Khoya ujala’ songs) and Raghav Sachar (‘Ruk ruk ruk’ remixed song), is fair. The absence of hit music is sorely felt. However, the ‘Almaari’ number as also a couple of other songs like ‘Mumma ki parchhai’ and ‘Chand lamhe’ are fairly nice. Swanand Kirkire’s lyrics (one song, ‘Chand lamhe’ by Asma) are good. Ranju Varughese’s song picturisations are decent. Daniel B. George’s background music is appealing. Sirsha Ray’s cinematography is of a fine standard. Madhu Sarkar’s production designing and Bhavani Patel’s art direction are of a good standard. Dharmendra Sharma’s editing is quite sharp.
On the whole, Helicopter Eela is a heartfelt drama with a good emotional quotient in the second half but it has its drawbacks too. Also, it has taken a very slow start and although its collections will pick up due to positive mouth publicity, the end result would not be exciting enough.
Released on 12-10-’18 at Inox (daily 4 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay by PEN India Ltd. Publicity: fair.. Opening: poor. …….Also released all over. Opening was dull everywhere.