Story
On his felicitation at the school where he learned, Rahul Sinha, an ace journalist walks through the corridors of his school and lives in memories of the carefree days.
Review
‘Woh Bhi Din The’ was created during a time when John Abraham and Shoojit Sircar were doing their best to push cinematic boundaries with their projects. The film has finally seen the light of day after sitting on the shelf for almost a decade. Though it has its share of glaring flaws, it manages to entertain viewers. Set in Jamshedpur, it is authentic to its milieu with performances that ring true. It tells a story filled with teenage romance and the trials and tribulations of school life very effectively. But for an imbalanced screenplay that turns what might have been great into average affair, this could have been a good film.
The film opens with Rahul Sinha (John Abraham) now an ace journalist returning to his alma mater for a felicitation. After the event, while walking down the same corridors he finds four students being disciplined outside the principal’s office and starts chatting with them. This conversation takes him down memory lane and we get pushed back into school days along with Rahul. In those flashback sequences Rahul Sinha (Rohit Saraf) is shown as Joy Ganguly’s (Adarsh Gourav) closest friend among them who are part of a group that only believes in hedonism, they smoke all day long, watch blue films at one classmate’s place and indulge in activities forbidden on campus.
His world changes when he falls for Shalini (Charu Bedi) and Joy ensures they become friends but another girl named Milky (Sanjana Sanghi) falls for Rahul too which puts pressure on their friendship leading to complications between them. These romantic entanglements strain their once unbreakable bond over time. Seeing this makes Rahul question what he wants in life.
This is Sajid Ali’s directorial debut (Imtiaz Ali’s brother) and it shows potential behind the camera. If one goes by this film made ten years ago then his talent wasn’t fully honed at that point in time. There are certain scenes which shine brilliantly while others reveal lack of experience on his part. He has managed to capture small town school life, local dialects, mannerisms and ambience very well. The performances are true to the setting but within all these pluses, there is unevenness as the film looks rough around edges sometimes in terms of finish. The narrative gives too much time for Rahul’s pursuit of Shalini and Milky neglecting potential drama within school or family dynamics which could have added more layers into story telling process; though captured but not enough explored throughout the movie.
Rohit Saraf impressively represents Rahul Sinha, expressing emotions and feelings convincingly for his age. He shows us the many sides to a school-going child. Sanjana Sanghi’s character Milky is honest and straightforward and speaks her mind all the time this she does well. But it’s Adarsh Gourav as Joy Ganguly who steals every scene he appears in, he’s a natural actor. And not just here but also across other movies and shows recently, Gourav has performed with an extraordinary amount of maturity. For 2013 release Banana (now known as Woh Bhi Din The) has some good things going on in it if you can get past its amateurishness sometimes which might put-off certain people who expect polished products all the time while watching films like these, there are parts that will hold your attention captive making pardonable any such mistakes made by filmmakers during production because at least they tried something new within their field . The problem with this school drama is that it could have been a great movie with all those ingredients required for one; unfortunately instead of biryani like deliciousness we get plain rice and lentils (chawal dal).
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