FILM REVIEW: PAGE 3 (2005)

Director: Madhur Bhandarkar
Producer: Bobby Pushkarna
Cast: Konkona Sen Sharma, Atul Kulkarni, Sandhya Mridul, Tara Sharma, Bikram Saluja and Boman Irani

Radio Sargam Rating: 6/10

Synopsis:
Madhavi Sharma (Konkona) has left her home in Bangalore to come to Mumbai to be a journalist. She lands a job as a reporter on page 3 events. Moving through the fake smiles, air-kisses and wild parties, Madhavi reports regularly on the subject. She is living in with an airhostess friend Pearl Sequiera (Sandhya) who dreams of marrying a rich man and settling down in life one day.

Madhavi meets Tarun (Jai Kalra) a model who is trying to make it big. She also bumps into a budding actress Gayatri (Tara Sharma). Gayatri has been moving around in parties with her secretary with the hoping of meeting producers who would cast her.

Gayatri soon shifts into the house with Madhavi and starts living with her. Madhavi tries to help Gayatri by introducing her to many friends in the film industry including Rohit (Bikram Saluja) who is a big star.

Madhavi's boss Suri (Boman Irani) supports her a lot, but knows what his organisation wants. He tells her to write a lot about the happenings in the page 3 circuits and reduce writing about other issues and about painters. Due to the increased popularity of the pages, the workload also increases.

In the meantime, Madhavi has a few ideological clashes with the crime reporter of the newspaper Vinayak Mane (Atul Kulkarni) who feels that Page 3 reporting is not journalism. Jai and Madhavi get along well and a bond develops between them. Similarly, Pearl tags along with Madhavi and meets a much older man whom she agrees to marry knowing well that she would have an old man as a husband, but lots of money at her disposal.

A sequence of events at a death ceremony of a socialite, who commits suicide, changes Madhavi's life and she starts reporting on crime assisting Mane. She sees bomb blasts and victims, does reporting that news reporters do and suddenly gets an insight into life as well. In the meantime she also realises that her boyfriend Jai also has a boyfriend himself as he chooses to use the bed as a stepping-stone to stardom. And Gayatri tries to commit suicide when she gets pregnant with Rohit's child and he asks her to abort.

She also uncovers a major story when she catches the husband of the dead socialite red-handed indulging in child abuse. But instead of publishing her story, her boss sacks her at the insistence of the owner of the newspaper.

She goes back to page 3 reporting in a different newspaper and suddenly things seem to be back to normal.

Critique:
The film is full of black humour. The film takes a big dig at the social lives of people. It talks of how people are not what they seem at parties. It shows how everyone wants to be printed in the page 3 of newspapers and seen in the entertainment news shows of news channels. For those who have insights into the lives of these socialites, this film is like a true textbook. The film can also serve as a reference point on journalism and ethics of journalism adopted as it was shown a few years ago in the Shashi Kapoor starrer New Delhi Times. The film is too hard hitting to be described in words.

The problem however is the lack of stars in the film and the lack of production values. Also the movie is too slow in its pace in the first half. Page 3 is idealistic cinema which not many people will want to watch.

Madhur Bhandarkar comes into his own only after half an hour of the movie has started. There are many characters in the film and they all have been handled well. The cinematography is okay and the cameraman has not much to do. Konkona Sen Sharma is brilliant. The scene where she yells at the cop, who is enjoying himself at a party, hours after a bomb blast, is well done.

I guess she is the best actress this generation has. Unfortunately, she does not have the glamour in her to make it big. But I wouldn't be surprised if she does.
Jai Kalra is fine in his debut film and Bikram Saluja has grown as an actor. Boman Irani too performs well in a restrained role. Suddenly Atul Kulkarni is performing like star. He has a good screen presence and makes an impact. Tara Sharma looks cute and doesn't have much to do though. Sandhya Mridul stuns in a few scenes. The parting scene when she gets married and moves off is moving.

The music of the film which is largely does using original tracks has been used well and do not jar in the film and form part of the story.

Conclusion:
A must for all page 3 types and aspirants of those pages. Also Page 3 journalists who report regularly and do silly stories on these socialites should see the film.

Reviewed by: Tony

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