Sleepy Hollow

Makarand Deshpande seems to have carried the sensibilities of the unbothered hitch-hiker he played in Swades into his filmmaking. Sona Spa, a film made on an unconventional subject, is nothing but a surface level comment on the ills of modern lifestyle.

The film revolves around a premise of delegating the task of completing your sleep to someone else. However, doing so will open that delegate to the world of your dreams, thereby ridding you off the stress. Yes, does sound an Inception-like plot. However, what Christopher Nolan does with extreme craftsmanship is that he gets you so involved in the story that you do not stop to question the plausibility of the concept. Makarand’s film, sadly, has a story that is too preachy and once you get the gist of it, you stop paying attention to the déjà-vu dialogues narrated by Naseeruddin Shah, referred to as Babaji throughout the film.

On paper, the concept appears quite intriguing, but the film fails to translate the psychological thriller onto screen. The film focuses on two of the ‘sleep workers’; one of whom is a middle-class girl from Pune overcoming a family tragedy while the other is a rich girl from Mumbai belonging to a dysfunctional family and coping with the death of her mother. The plot outline may interest you at first, but it unfolds in an unflattering manner leaving you disappointed. A lot of the blame goes to the form in which the film is presented. A dark theme like this is presented with flat visuals and primitive graphics, and is shot like casual coverage of events; lending it a crude look which doesn’t generate any interest.

Naseeruddin Shah, who is the largest figure on the promotional material of this film doesn’t play a very important role in the film. He is reduced to being on a television screen at the Spa or simply heard in the background, save for a few scenes where he preaches about the importance of sleep by breaking the fourth wall. Ritu and Richa, played by Aahana Kumrah and Shruti Vyas try to make the most of the poorly crafted scenes and imperfect dialogue. Aahana, shows promise and maybe we will get to see her in a better film in the near future.

Makarand’s sense of humor, like him, appears in the film for brief moments. For instance, Babaji (Naseer) is said to have settled in Seattle because people are ‘Sleepless In Seattle’. But apart from that, the film is a superficial commentary on life as we know it, in a way that is seen in cheap pop-psychological stories and pretentious college plays.


Rating - 1.5 out of 5