3.5/5
Raj Rachakonda’s 8 A.M. Metro is a homage to Gulzar’s poetry. It’s seeped in metaphors and symbolism and revolves around a platonic companionship between two strangers. It’s something Gulzar himself could have made. Indeed, the cherry on the cake is Gulzar’s poetry which acts as the moodboard of sorts for different situations in the film.
Iravati (Saiyami Kher), a homemaker living in Nanded, is afraid of travelling by train because of a traumatic situation in the past. Her sister Riya (Nimisha Nair), who stays in Hyderabad, is nearing her term and wants her to be there to support her because of some complications. She somehow musters courage to make the journey and almost faints on the way. Upon reaching the hospital via a rickshaw from Hyderabad, her sister informs her she should have taken the metro as it’s both convenient and affordable. She takes the plunge but has a fainting spell again when the train arrives and is saved by a stranger, Pritam (Gulshan Devaiah). They start meeting during both mornings and evenings and become friends. They share their insecurities and dreams and have conversations about everything under the sun. The relationship is devoid of sexual frisson. It’s a melding of minds who find answers to each others’ trouble through conversations.
As said earlier, Gulzar’s poetry elevates the film. Iravati is a poet and has a habit of distilling her experiences into poetry. Everytime she writes something new, it correlates to the things that she has experienced. Gulzar had been especially commissioned to write on each situation and has done a wonderful job as usual. Saiyami Kher takes her time to bring gravitas to her reading. At first, she’s somewhat off the mark but latches on to the emotions contained in the word as the film progresses. It’s seldom that we see poetry becoming a character of sorts in a film and it’s good to see it being done in a current film.
The film examines man-woman relationships. Both the protagonists are married and seen to be as happy as can be in their respective marriages. They open up, as we often do, to strangers and slowly find themselves drawn to each other. The film is trying to say that men and women, given the ideal set of circumstances, can be friends as well if they learn to give friendship a chance. A balance is needed in such a scenario and the two protagonists never lose their footing, keeping true to the invisible boundaries of their respective relationships.
It’s basically a two character film held together by the performances of Saiyami Kher and Gulshan Devaiah. Saiyami has grown as a performer with every outing and is at her finest here. The frailty, the insecurities of her character come alive in the expressions and body language. The actor makes us privy to the small joys and victories of Iravati’s life and makes us root for her. Gulshan is a fine actor and while he does go a tad over-the-top near the end, he makes the role his own in the rest of the film. There’s a quiet dignity to his character. We see glimpses of the grief lurking within, even as he goes about silently suffering. The two actors are well-matched and lend able support to each other. Mention must also be made of Nimisha Nair, who plays Iravati’s younger sister and of Kalpika Ganesh, who plays Gulshan’s wife in the film. Both are competent in their respective roles.
It’s not as if the film isn’t without faults. The director should have kept a faster pace and trimmed it to two hours or so. At 162 minutes, it feels a bit long. It’s buoyed by sterling performances by both Saiyami Kher and Gulshan Devaiah and the lyrical appeal of the narrative.
Trailer : 8 A.M. Metro
Dhaval Roy, May 17, 2023, 9:45 PM IST
3.5/5
Story: This is the story of an unlikely friendship between a married woman and a banking professional who bump into a metro train.
Review: Superficially, 8 AM Metro seems like a de rigueur story about an unappreciated homemaker trapped in a thankless marriage who discovers companionship in a new man she meets. But the movie is precisely on the opposite side of the spectrum. It’s about two hurting hearts finding the meaning of life and healing. And the beauty is that just like you need to keep showing up every day in your journey towards awakening, two unlikely friends meet each day to learn a new lesson in life.
Iravati (Saiyami Kher) is a simple Maharashtrian homemaker and a closeted poet dealing with a traumatic childhood event that results in panic attacks, preventing her from travelling by train. As her husband fails to join her on a trip to Hyderabad to look after her younger sister about to deliver a baby, she must navigate through a new city by herself as she deals with episodes of panic. She meets a banker, Pritam (Gulshan Devaiyah), who helps her reach her destination the first time and accompanies her every day after that as he takes the same train. Friendship blossoms between them as they go through their individual lives.
The film is replete with poetry, literature and tales of tribes that serve as lessons in humanity, bonding, loss and life in general. In its own subtle way, it also comments on how society looks at mental health issues and how people suffering from anxiety disorder and panic attacks are asked to ‘be strong’. There’s a brilliant scene where Iravati takes the role of society, and Pritam becomes her and exchanges a dialogue about what it means to suffer from panic attacks. The emphatic way in which Gulshan Devaiyah responds wins your heart. The movie also touches upon how socially-awkward people often deal with life, letting go of plum opportunities because of their inability to interact. There are many such nuances, and the film’s measured pace allows that to come through sensitively and beautifully.
As things unravel in the second half, the narrative organically spins on its head, all that it establishes in the first part. Unexpected things galore. Director and writer Raj Rachakonda and co-writer Shruti Bhatnagar balance a heart-touching story with tense moments and also infuse humour in it through the duo’s co-traveller, an IT guy who answers video calls on the metro and strikes the conversation with them as they sip on filter coffee.
Saiyami Kher and Gulshan Devaiyah deliver stellar performances—and their helplessness, angst and humane side are palpable in every scene. They are raw yet so controlled, and look the part of simple people. Recounting Franz Kafka’s tale of the missing doll is the perfect ending. It can only be experienced by watching.
8 AM Metro is a languid tale but nowhere dull. If you sit rapt with attention, you will learn something about the meaning of love, life, loss and eventual healing. This is definitely worth a watch.
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