Story:
The Signature, starring Anupam Kher, Mahima Chaudhry and Neena Kulkarni, revolves around an elderly man, who faces a huge struggle and desperate situations to keep his ill wife alive on a ventilator after she goes into a coma. Written and directed by Gajendra Ahire, ZEE5’s latest outing proves that even the most renowned and experienced actors can come across as a bunch of amateurs when not guided by a skilled filmmaker. From direction and screenplay to performances, the drama in the movie appears drastically hopeless akin to its story.
Review:
The film begins without any premise or introduction, showcasing an elderly couple bidding goodbye to their family at the airport before embarking on – what looks like – an exciting journey. Suddenly, the wife collapses on the ground. She’s immediately taken to a hospital, where the doctor declares her to be in a coma. From hereon the narrative revolves around the financial and emotional challenges faced by this elderly man to keep his wife on a ventilator in a private hospital. As the title of the film suggests, he gets advice to give his signature on a paper to let his life partner of 35 years die in peace as there is almost no chance of recovery.
Not only the leading cast but actors like Annu Kapoor, Ranveer Shorey and Manoj Joshi appear quite underprepared in their sequences onscreen. Based on Ahire’s 2013 Marathi film Anumati, The Signature seems like a needless struggle to recreate an already well-made movie into a worthless adaptation. Amidst the boring plot, a bizarre turn of events occurs when Kher’s Arvind and Chaudhry’s Ambika meet each other and suddenly start reminiscing about their young age and likeness towards each other with mild flirting, which appears quite unnecessary. The Naseeruddin Shah and Kalki Koechlin starrer Waiting (2015) is one of those films that has been made on a similar concept and achieved success with its nuanced story-telling and watch-worthy performances.
Meanwhile, the only sequence of this film that grabbed my attention was Chaudhry’s beautiful and brave bald look that she reveals very casually in front of his old friend. She shares that due to her chemotherapy, she had to let go of her hair and further describes it as a phase and how her acceptance of her life has made her happy and content.
Verdict:
The ZEE5 movie also tries to spotlight serious issues like complicated, fraudulent health insurance policies and unnecessary but unavoidable medical bills; but doesn’t dig deeper into these matters. Like the ironically sad climax, The Signature hopelessly falls flat on its face with no chance of redemption!
The Signature
Watch on: ZEE5
Director: Gajendra Ahire
Cast: Anupam Kher, Mahima Chaudhry, Neena Kulkarni, Annu Kapoor, Ranveer Shorey and Manoj Joshi
Rating: 1.5 stars
