Sui Dhaga : A delightful shorba from a perfect broth

Have you been hungry over a long period of time? All that comes your way during such a time is hastily put together, spicy stuff from  a hot wok that has been hurriedly fried n tossed . Then to avoid this, one goes into a fancy labelled eating place. Here under the packaging of conditioned atmosphere, good sofa sets smartly turned out waiters, with fancy crockery and cutlery that promises a hugely inflated bill and one still gets served the same insipid or over spiced fare. I have been cheated too often in this manner to know that this does not leave a nice taste in the mouth.

So one goes hungry outside and eats only at home or partakes only the home-cooked meal. This while may be good in many aspects; the range here is limited to the skill and range of the cooking available. The taste buds are left wanting. Then one day when you have left home and forgotten the lunch box, the pangs drive you into a non-descript yet clean looking place. Here looking at the simple menu on offer you order the soup. The shorba comes served in an ordinary glass bowl but the aroma has tickled the nostrils while it was approaching the table. Then the sight of it pleases ones eye at the simple clarity of the broth and as one dips into it and mouths the first spoonful, the subtle flavours explode on to your palate and one is suffused with a sensation of pure delight. A smile lingers on as one has a fill of an ordinary menu prepared quite beautifully.

Sui Dhaga is just this kind of a broth, simple, subtle and full of nuanced flavours.

Mauji ( Varun Dhavan) and Mamta (Anushka Sharma) are matter of factly launched at you as husband and wife, the son and daughter-in-law of  a pesky Babuji ( Raghuvir Yadav, competent as ever) and a Maaji (Yamini Das, who is like that extra raisin one has surprisingly found in a motichur ka laddoo. Sublimely superb) who is so much into the character that one definitely gets a feeling of the familiar watching her? Mauji is a happy go lucky simpleton, sincere, honest, hard-working, obedient, dutiful grandson of a black n white photograph hanging on the grimy wall. This wrinkled old coon in the photograph was a skilled tailor master whose business bombed and effectively turned his son , Raghuvir Yadav into a risk averse service goer of a type who cloaks his non-relevant work life into an epic of one on whom duty declared that he should be like this. His elder spineless son has left home to be a ghar jamai at a comparatively richer household and the younger Mauji who though has inherited his grandfather’s skilled fingers on a sewing machine is willing to follow his fathers footsteps by loyally playing the fool to an advantage taking shopkeeper. The crescendo of his humiliation is once witnessed by his wife who is hurt beyond measure at this demeaning role. In a very very subtle manner she pokes at his self respect that wakes up from its seemingly self-imposed slumber.

This is the tipping point and Mauji’s transformation begins from a pleasant yet simply trusting a young boy-man into a man. A man whose wife walks by his side, happily and proudly, willing to go that extra mile for her man; holding his hand, comfort him with soothing words, directing him responsibly and even at times taking cudgels for him. The story line holds no surprises finally spiralling towards a contest that one already knows who would win. The fun of this movie is not in knowing the end result much before it has come that one does, but it is in the delightful walk that Mamta and Mauji take. Their sincerity draws you into their story in such a compelling fashion at times one’s eyes moisten both with pathos and joys experienced by this quite a surprisingly adorable pair  who baffle you with their inexperience, yet make you admire their drive n persistence and even one feels like pushing  them simply over the speed breakers that keep popping up quite often in their path. Their victory is the finale and a beginning.

Sharad Katariya, the director,  has done a credible job and the movie produced by Yash Raj Films will guarantee it a good release. The movie belongs to Varun Dhavan and Anushka Sharma who have put in their hearts and souls into their characters and never once have they faltered. Anu Malik talented as ever composes a few beautiful songs to Varun Grover’s script driven lyrics. The support castled by Namit Das as the over effusive and funny relative who is also a fixer, gives out a performance that is very good and as do the others.

Those who enjoy the spicily loud fare normally dished out by Yash Raj films that are manoeuvred into the 100 crore club may give this movie a miss. This is for those who enjoy a simple story told quite well. This is the kind of food that promises to be food only and not pretending to be anything else, wholesome and entirely an absolute value for money cinema experience. Bon apetit.