• Friday, October 02, 2009

• Country:

  India

• Language:

  Hindi

• Runtime:

  138 min

2009

Wake Up Sid is the story of Sidharth Mehra (Ranbir Kapoor), a lazy, unmotivated slacker from Mumbai whose life undergoes a series of changes after taking his final year college exams. Sid's world is breezy, carefree, and without any true responsibilities. The most important elements in his life are his friends, his camera, his car, and his X-box 360.

Sid thrives around his two best friends, Rishi (Namit Das) and Laxmi (Shikha Talsania), very rarely communicates with his mother Sarita (Supriya Pathak) and takes his father Ram Mehra (Anupam Kher), and all his hard earned wealth for granted. Despite all these traits, Sid is an honest boy; sweet, funny, and above all, a good friend. Aisha Bannerjee (Konkona Sen Sharma), an aspiring writer from Calcutta, learns this soon enough when her path crosses with Sid's on her first day in Bombay, Ambitious, well-read, and driven, Aisha has come to Bombay to realize her dreams as a writer. Despite their contrasting personalities. Sid becomes Aisha's first friend in the city.

As Aisha sets up her life in Bombay, with the help of Sid and his gang, Wake Up Sid allows for time to fly by over long drives, parties that stretch well into dawn, and endless hours doing absolutely nothing. But summers vary rarely dull these days and Sid's summer is no different. A series of circumstances and events compel him to take stock of his life and take a hard look at himself. Will he, at some point figure out what he's supposed to be doing with his life?

Characters:

Ranbir Kapoor: Sidharth Mehra
That's me! Well, Sidharth Mehra really but everyone calls me Sid. I'm just a regular guy, I guess. I just finished college and have no idea what the heck I'm doing next. No one told me that I had to have a plan, so I never made one! If you ask me, the world would be a much better place if we all just slowed down and learnt to take it easy sometimes. That's kind of what I'm doing these days... just taking it easy... hanging with my buddies, watching TV, eating, sleeping, dreaming... that sort of thing, you know?

Konkona Sen Sharma: Aisha Bannerjee
God, there's so much to say about Aisha... She's new to Mumbai, and completely infatuated with the city. She left everyone and everything she knew in Kolkata to go after her dream of becoming a writer for this cool urban magazine called Mumbai Beat. She's creative, ambitious, focused, driven, brave... phew, basically everything I'm not!

Anupam Kher: Ram Mehra
Dad and I have nothing in common, really. He owns a company that manufactures bathroom fittings. Their speciality: these horrific gadgets called Flower Showers! They're exactly what they sound like-showers that look like flowers. I wish I was kidding, but I'm not. And now, he wants me to join the company! How am I going to get out of this one?

Supriya Pathak: Sarita
Mom has three obsessions: Watching TV serials, nagging me, and trying to learn English. I don't know which one bothers me more! But she's sweet, and always gives me money, even when dad tells her not to. And her Rajma Chawal is to die for!

Namit Das: Rishi
Rishi and I have been buddies since KG, and he hasn't changed one bit. He's always in love and always getting his heart broken. His current "true love" is Neha. They met on the first day of college, and have been obnoxiously stuck at the hip ever since. I don't get this 'love' business at all! Quite frankly, I feel like punching him in the face when he gets all mushy. We've had some great times together though.

Shikha Talsania: Laxmi
Laxmi is one of my best friends, though her best friend is food! I don't think I've ever seen her not eating. I swear! She's either munching on something, or talking about eating, or planning her next meal... how she manages to find time to study and top our class every year, I have no idea!

Maxabout Review

Fun movie. Strongly Recommended. .

Wake up Sid is the tale of Sidharth Mehra played by Ranbir Kapoor, an idle, unenthusiastic idler from Mumbai City whose life experience a sequence of transformations following his last year college examination. Sid is world’s most lazy person and only thinks about his friends, camera, car and game station. He has two best friends. In spite of all this he is very honest, joyful, sweet and a very good friend. . A sequence of situations & events force him to take supply of his life & take a solid look at himself.

WAKE UP SID, directed by debutante Ayan Mukerji, is like revisiting those years when partying hard was the only agenda on your list, when staying awake at nights, chatting away with friends became a habit, lay at some remote corner of your mind, after you moved on in life. Ayan narrates a story that you can relate to instantly and treats it with utmost care. A few moments linger in your memory and evoke bitter-sweet memories.

WAKE UP SID is a slice of life film. It's not merely real in concept, but has also been told most realistically, so much so that you can't help but draw parallels with your life or with someone you know. But what really makes WAKE UP SID most believable is Ranbir Kapoor, who's mastered the craft at such a young age.

Right from Ranbir Kapoor’s appearance to the look of the movie, ‘Wake Up Sid’ exudes freshness. On top of it, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, the splendid trio that has churned spunky, soothing melodies in the past, does it again in ‘WUS’. The contemporary yet poetic lyrics are by Javed Akhtar.

Producer Karan Johar also deviates from his usual larger-than-life films in ‘WUS’. Lavish sets have been replaced by a small flat in Mumbai’s urban setting and you get to see a funny, lazy and laidback teenager. The album is a sweet-small package of six cheery songs. Here we go, waking up with Sid!

The first hour, right till the intermission, sweeps you off your feet. You get drawn into Sid's world instantaneously; you react to everything he does. But the post-interval portions slackens, courtesy the writing. The story stagnates after a point and hence, the pacing gets very slow. It's only towards the finale that things perk up. Ideally, the film could've done with some trimming in this hour.

Like the theme of the movie, the album’s songs are about life and new beginnings. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy have kept the mood jolly with each song of the album, but the trio hasn’t tried to do anything different; they have walked the beaten path. More was expected of them. Anyway, the music score offers you soft rock and light pop music, and sets your mood for some fun, frolic and merry making.

The emotional moments especially gets you all moist-eyed. The humour too is well integrated in the sequences. Even the confrontation between the father and son is superb. Prior to that Konkona's birthday sequence is amongst the finest sequences of the film. Anil Mehta's cinematography is top notch. Niranjan Iyengar's dialogues are just right.

WAKE UP SID is a well-made film that should strike a chord with the youth mainly. This one's a simple story that strikes a chord instantly. Strongly recommended!

Trivias

• Konkona Sen Sharma lost weight for her role after Karan Johar requested it. However, once the shooting schedule ended, she gained it all back, so she was requested to lose the weight once again for some of the patch up scenes.Wake Up Sid
• The film Wake Up Sid got delayed three month during post production when Ranbir Kapoor grew a beard for a role in Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year (2009), therefore, he was unavailable to shoot some of the patch up scenes.