ALIA BHATT'S TRYST WITH BROKEN CHILDHOOD - A Perspective

----  Alia Bhatt is one among those actresses of Bollywood who has that element of evolution in the blood. Since her first movie, Student of the year, taking a peak on her acting graph, one might not find a dip but rather spikes that are unrevoked. And among the minuscule number of movies she had acted, the finest performances; those which established her as an actress rather than a Bollywood actress; came in those movies where she portrays a character who had undergone a dark childhood. It’s an unknown fact if there exists a coincidence in her acting and the characters; but so far she performs magnanimously in the portrayals. Though the lucrative aspects of the movies might not be much into Bollywood-ish, the characters and the movies had proved that they are to stay; unlike the $-figures which would be revisited then and there. A retrospection of the characters is done here; and a sheer scrutiny for nuances is tried to decipher the Alia element in these characters. -----

• VEERA TRIPATHI – HIGHWAY - The Magnanimous

Alia Bhatt was under-privileged to portray a modern day dimwit rich girl going to school in Student of the Year. But the movie proved to be a good opener for her. An evident break after that; for more than a year before her next release was paid of extremely well in the masterpiece; HIGHWAY. The character of Veera Tripathi; a once in a blue moon type of role for any actor; was bestowed to her by the Maestro Imtiaz Ali. Though it was a bold decision; to give such a dense character to a comparatively new artist like Alia; she portrayed Veera in such a magnanimous way, that no other actress at present could put up a mere challenge.
Veera; a well-bred daughter of a powerful personality; brought up in the patriarchal society; fed with manners and social values rather than love and affection; is being abducted amidst a mess, by a rebellious low profile criminal. Veera, who initially follows the normal petrification suffered by any human being who gets kidnapped; finds an odd liking to the situation. She supersedes her fear and anxiety; rather finds her comfort zone. Alia had put her soul into the character, that each vignettes of modulations in Veera is portrayed without confusion.
In the song, “Tu Kuja Mahn Kuja”, where Alia runs through a drought-struck field trying to escape from the kidnappers, without a tint of dialogues she enacts the fear of an abandoned girl, helpless and clueless in the lurch. The scenario in the movie is so beautifully crafted; that Veera realizes her escape would end in vain and returns to her kidnappers, as she couldn’t survive the fear alone.
The anthropophobic Veera forms an unintentional bond with her kidnappers; who in-turn is moved by the childish deeds of Veera. She literally enjoys the freedom from her family and the allied society; or it seems so to the viewers until she reveals about the grave mishap that had occurred in her childhood. Oh!!!!…… the mascot scene of HIGHWAY. Alia almost performed the whole scene; like a 2-minute revelation; in a single-shot. And no one would surpass this 2 minutes in the movie without a deep gulp in the throat. Alia also excels in those instances when Veera gets muddled between the way she acts and the way she is supposed to as per her parental society demands. Numerous instances abetting to the soaring character graph includes those when Alia pampers Mahabir with the lullaby; when she bullies with him in front of a police station; when she consoles a heartbroken Mahabir in a dilapidated mountain house where she reminisces him of his long lost mother.
Veera’s Stockholm syndrome’s dream run ended when the patriarchal society again reappears; with guns and microphones and orders to shoot the Kidnapper; who had become the best companion for Veera. And then comes another gem from Alia; a blood-clotting scene where she confronts her paedophilic uncle and shouts in front of all family members about the devilish acts from him. A sheer show of excellence and substance in that scene; credits to Alia and Imtiaz.
The banquet of excellence sums up with Veera shifting to her favourite place; the mountains, which apart from being her childhood dream; also bears her unforgettable memoirs of Mahabir. The ending scene; the most disturbing frame of the movie, where Alia/Veera finds herself and Mahabir as children playing in the mountains; recreating a childhood which they had lost; they had longed for, but was snatched by the people around them; the society.
Alia had the best of her acting sequences; when there was no dialogues in the scene. And so was the importance of body language in those scenes; that Imtiaz Ali employed a body language specialist for the movie. The excellence went overwhelming when Veera sits on a rock beside the river; confused and dazed on her own behaviour; or when she gets down in the middle of the road to cry out Mahabir’s name; and never forgetting her catch on the viewer’s mazzard when she steps in for ‘I’m a hot Tamale’ song. In total, it was a signature acting from Alia Bhatt saying it out loud that she is here to stay; unlike the other bolly-girls.

• KAIRA – DEAR ZINDAGI - Captivating

Kaira of ‘Dear Zindagi’ also bears a childhood emotional baggage. And the movie makes a surgery into those teenagers, who loves to be independent because they were not well-treated in their dependence. Gauri Shinde’s movie is a visual therapy that tries to cure confusions, a young mind would find while being or intending to be in a relationship; especially for an attractive girl who has a lot of options in her kitty and not to the mediocre struggling to find a partner. But Alia got into Kaira’s shoes to bridge that gap; to make the movie’s message to be flaunted as a universal one. Hats off to her for that.
And the only one thing the character demanded; to behave in the situations, is what exactly Alia had done. Easiest instance an actor might go unreal is when he is to do something really real. Bollywood had witnessed such characters; as a side hanger to the lead or as a support cast; but not to the depth Gauri has crafted Kaira.  To justify such a character with utmost perfection is a luxury to the director and a boon to the viewers. The unusual implications like; to move on in a relationship, to point your finger against your parents, to be open-ended in choosing people, to be carefree; and last but not the least, to love yourself no matter whatever price it pays, Alia’s Kaira survived all these situations in ease without any hiccups.
Alia in the movie can be classified as pre and post therapy Kaira. And she had this exciting challenge in the movie to dwell from sulk to serenity. Kair bears the representation of a large population of India; those having no REAL problems in their life but are undergoing depression; REAL here referring to the mundane problems. Not only that she sulks when she is suffering a break-up and sees other couples enjoying, she covers her tears in front of her best friend in the shade of mirchi’s spice, she hates to admit her inner depression to her therapist or to seek help in direct. And all could see a mirror kept on the big screen when these vignettes passed over. That was the scale of depiction Alia delved into.
Now coming to the childhood part, unlike Veera in Highway who had a cruel counterpart to mash the childhood; Kaira had the hapless destiny to suffer depression from her own parents. And abandonment is the act. How deep this act would destroy a child not only in the childhood but in her later age is the soul of Dear Zindagi. This soul of the movie completely bestowed in Alia’s hand, when she reveals about this innermost conflict in about a 7-min long conversation to her therapist. The abetting scenes of a little Kaira and younger parents; coming in the flashback portrayals, tried hard to spoil Alia’s take on the scene; but her exponential glide of emotions in that scene is poignantly inexplicable.
Even when Shah Rukh Khan stood beside her; Dear Zindagi is an Alia Bhatt showdown; establishing her name in the industry for performance and not skin appeal; once again

• Tia Malik – Kapoor And Sons - The Soothing

Alia had a justified portion in this male dominated family movie; where the central characters belong to a family of. ‘Tia’ she came out to be a rich loner enjoying her stance in her ancestral property, which is awaiting a buyer. And in her course of carefree life; a jovial watch by itself, she encounters the young Kapoors; the two brothers, in different situations. Tia came out to be a solace-lit attraction to the younger descendant, Arjun; who considers himself as a runner-up to his brother in life. With Tia being a supporting cast in the movie; Alia’s character had no great moments to leave cherished unless the childhood despair scene; where she unveils the reason of her loneliness; the death of her parents in a plane crash; a coincidental mishap in lest of her curse, where little Tia woes her parents off from coming home. Among all beautiful scenarios in Kapoor and Sons; where an ensembles cast is already excelling, Tia’s revelation stands out to be the cherry on the cake where carefreeness attitude being abashed by the insecurity burning in her heart since childhood. She still remains as that small child regretting her words.

• ALIA ARORA – SHAANDAAR - The misfire

Alia enacted the ‘Aila Alia’ in Shaandaar, a romantic comedy bearing all the available reasons to misfire; with only miracle left to save it. And when the movie released, that too followed misfiring. This movie is the picturization of a weak script and performances in a commotion of confusions. But when you find order in the chaos, there is this Alia Arora; an adopted child in an extremely rich family, who is hated and despised throughout her childhood and youth. And insomnia adding insult to injury, this Alia character depicts broken childhood in more of a sugarcoated portrayal, where orphanhood becomes the reason; the major reason, for the male protagonist to fall in love with her. She literally sleeps with him; or better, sleeps when he’s beside her, showing that they are made for each other. Unlike other Alia characters aforementioned; this role is a disaster in terms of character framing, portrayal and relevance. In terms of performance too, Alia was offered very little to do other than being a chubby presence in the screen to prevent people from running away; a justifiable reason to cast her in the movie too..

---- The actor in Alia excelled in all the four characters; with some giving her intense opportunity to define her skills, while some offering very little to. And the feat that stands out is Alia’s artistry in revisiting each character; Veera-Alia-Tia-Kaira in the chronological order; reassuring that none was portrayed in similar manner, though they had similar traits. A real tough to accomplish and Alia does that with ease and excellence. When other rudiments, the co-actors, the story-line, the direction, the time of release etc. fell out into position, the movies came out to be a grant success. The broken childhood is a past and Alia is not depicting the childhood sequences. But the aftermath of a dark past and how it would affect the present, a psychological prerequisite placed before her to delve with. Each character among the four is affected differently by their childhood experiences, one being moody, other being bold and another being carefree.
Virtue comes with excellence and so is Alia’s tryst with hardwork in these characters. And in each of them, she proves that she’s not a survivor in Bollywood. But one among the rulers….