Once Again Analysis

 Once Again (2018)

Written and Directed by: Kanwal Sethi
Starring: Neeraj Kabi, Shefali Shah
Streaming on Netflix. 

It's a matured romance between a lonely film star and a single mother, both of them in their 40s. It has a 'Lost in Translation' vibe where the temporal aspect of the film is used to get us immersed in the mood of the characters, to depict their loneliness. For example, the scene where she goes into his house when he's having executives at his place - we feel the awkwardness they'd feel, because of the extra hold on him, it's purely because of the pacing of the scene. The tone of the film is very interesting - it doesn't directly insinuate anything physical between them and yet the romantic tension is always on between the characters, even when they speak on the phone. The sparing use of dialogue helps in making us believe that they mean what they say - unlike how teenagers would keep blabbering. It also doesn't use any superlatives like, 'I like you so much, oh my god'. These things help in bringing in the maturity in writing. 

Bombay is shot very well - they shot the streets in a guirella style and it helps in making us feel the texture of the city. The background score in the ending of the film, the touch of classical music, with the female vocals is beautifully used to add both intimacy and reverence to their relationship. Sound design is also used to depict contrast in their lives - when they are going about their rather chaotic life - there's a lot of ambiance sounds and only when they are talking to each other, or with each other - there is a lot of silence, and the only ambiance we hear is that of waves in the beach, or the rustling leaves in the breeze. The Hindi of the film felt a little forced, for example - the usage of 'aap'. I'd have rather seen this in Hinglish. Ye Jawaani Hai Deewani, cracked the dialogue very well - they use good, colloquial Hindi in spite of having a lot of modern, complex ideas in the film.