Image credit: IndiaToday.in
What does the movie entail?
Death is not an end; it is the beginning of a new journey for both the deceased and his/her loved ones. In the film, "The Sky is Pink," Aisha Chaudhary, speaks postmortem in her usual teenage sassy, sarcastic and spunky voice narrating her favourite love story, that of Moose and Panda. You would be wondering who are Moose and Panda. They are none other than her parents, Aditi and Niren Chaudhary, who met and fell in love in Delhi.
Although it sounds like a perfect fiction tragic story, it is actually a true story based on the life of Aisha Chaudhary, who was born with SCID, a rare genetic disorder, and eventually died at the age of 17 because of Pulmonary Fibrosis. She always had a weak body. As a baby, she had to go through a bone marrow transplant and was prohibited from doing so many things that a healthy child could do. But with all these hardships also, she never lost hope and found meaning in life. She realised that death is the ultimate truth, so one should pursue what matters the most to him/ her, which in her case was being happy. Before dying, she inspired millions of people through her book, "My Little Epiphanies," and TED talks. Her vibrant, colourful, and joyful way of living life is an example for everyone to pursue their goals no matter what and accept happiness.
This movie revolves around Aditi and Niten mainly and sheds light upon some of the most common human sufferings. It also sends across a message that we should live our lives to the fullest and not simply exist
What works in favour of the movie
Generally, in movies, parents are the forever silent side-liner characters of cinematic tragedies. But this movie presents something different. Although the star of the film is Aisha Chaudhary, the story has been shown through the lens of her parents. This sheds light upon the whole process of grieving and addressing some major issues to which all of us could relate or will be able to connect too. What happens when a loved one dies? What happens to the caregiver? How do family dynamics change? How does it affect the parents and siblings at an individual level? How does society react to it all? What is the effect of society on those who are grieving or are in the process of healing? Can one really come out of this loss? Can one really recuperate? Can the void created by the loss of a loved one be ever filled again? Do the people who look normal after such a significant loss are actually healthy, or do they pretend to be normal/healthy?
Moreover, choosing this approach to the story of Aisha Chaudhary made the movie a combination of tragedy and humour, different from all those melodramatic movies where the life of an individual is cut very short and thus, creates a light-hearted and balanced environment for the viewers.
Spanning 25 years of life in a two and a half hours’ movie, both Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Farhan Akhtar, while acting as Aditi and Niren Chaudhary beautifully endorsed their respective characters throughout and depicted the different stages of life in a remarkable manner.
The whimsical score from Bollywood composer Pritam at some critical scenes pierces right through the heart of the audience, giving a different edge to those tragic moments, whereas, at other scenes, it makes the environment fresh and alive. This alignment between the music, scenes, and acting gives an aesthetic feeling to the audiences.
What could have been better?
It is a bit too long with a screen time of around two and a half hours and could have been shortened in a few places.
Although all the songs are lovely and suit the scenes too, a few of them are quite repetitive in terms of their lyrics, which sets the mood off after a point. So, the words of the songs and the transition between verses could have been worked upon a little more.
In a few scenes, the acting or the appearances of the actors didn’t make much sense. It disrupted the flow of the movie, and thus, more attention should have been paid. For example, there was a scene where Priyanka Chopra (Aditi Chaudhary) was lying in her bed, awake with lipstick on her perfectly puckered lips. Although such minute details don’t make much of a difference, then such features only set one movie apart from others.
There is a little change in the character of Priyanka Chopra to suggest her ageing and anguish, which undermines the authenticity of emotions. The directors’ argument to this is that she and her team wanted to work against the stereotypical image of ageing women in India, which indeed is a good step (as stated in an IMDb interview in Toronto 2019). But then again, when we contrast it with the trauma and psychotic breakdown which the character of Aditi went through and a considerably significant time period of struggle, then this whole idea seems a bit debatable.
The essence of the title lies in the conversation of a weeping 7-year-old and his mother who is distanced from him. From a phone booth in London Aditi calls her home in Chandni Chowk. After a small talk with her mother in law the phone is in the hands of a 7-year-old Ishaan who is crying because his teacher scolded him and his friends teased him for colouring his sky pink. To this, his mother replies that because it is his sky it can be any colour he wants. She emphasised that there is no need to change the colour of your pink sky simply because others want it to be blue.
A simple lesson for everyone to not question their uniqueness and individuality. The idea of being okay with oneself whether suffering from usual or very problematic challenges of life is the message of the movie. Aisha’s spirit to enjoy life even hints to the old-time classic ‘Anand ‘ which gave us the famous saying ‘ Zindagi lambi nahi badi honi chahiye’
The Shonali Bose directorial, written by Shonali Bose herself, Juhi Chaturvedi, and Nilesh Maniyar with an ensemble cast of Priyanka Chopra Jonas as Aditi Chaudhary, Farhan Akhtar as Niren Chaudhary, Zaira Wasim as Aisha Chaudhary and Rohit Saraf as Ishaan Chaudhary is balanced and hard on reality. So, if you are looking for a well-balanced tragic and humour based movie, then you should go to watch “The Sky is Pink.”
- Written by Mehul Choudhary
- Edited by Maitreyi Mehndiratta
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