Mausam is the kind of movie that has everything: superlative performances, beautiful cinematography, fantastic direction, great background score and an interesting story. However, it falls short in one area – the plot. And that’s what turns what could have been an outstanding movie into one that’s simply good, with a few moments that really shine.
The film is about a Punjabi boy (Harry) and a Kashmiri girl (Aayat), whose story is a series of meetings and separations that occur in context of real-life events – such as the 9/11 attacks and the Gujarat riots.
The first half of the movie showcases an old-world charm that makes you yearn for that time when things were so much simpler – I fell in love with the Punjab we saw through Pankaj Kapur‘s eyes. The teenage antics, stolen glances and sweet smiles make for some very lovely scenes that portray innocent love at its best. In fact, that’s the best part of Mausam – it revives that concept of innocent love which has been lost throughout the series of rom-coms we’ve had lately. You will love the first proper exchange shared by the main characters – it’s soft, beautiful, and has an absolutely amazing background song to go along with it (which wasn’t on the album, unfortunately).
However, in the second half, the plot loses focus easily, making the film too long-winded. Pankaj Kapur should have left out some sub-plots from his script, because it just made the movie cumbersome and long. The final 15 minutes of the film were the worst, in my opinion; those scenes were unnecessary, way too cliche, and definitely should have been left out. That was my major gripe; ending aside, I quite liked the film.
Shahid Kapoor is phenomenal in Mausam. He plays the mischievous teenager so naturally, and easily transitions into the mature Air Force officer. His best performance by far – even surpassing that of Jab We Met. I believe it is also Sonam Kapoor‘s best work; she looks perfect for the part of Aayat and has excelled in both her quiet scenes and her highly dramatic ones. Oh, and she is absolutely gorgeous in this film. Plus, the chemistry between these two is absolutely stunning – they look amazing together and it’s such a nice, fresh pairing that you sit up and take notice.
Pankaj Kapur’s direction is fabulous – he executes his scenes really, really well, and the beautiful cinematography just added to that. I’m mightily impressed with Pankaj Kapur the director and dialogue-writer, but not so much with Pankaj Kapur the scriptwriter.
In short: Watch – especially on the big screen. Recommended for the stellar performances, technical elements and those moments of brilliance; but beware, it can get a bit too long and dramatic.