A little more sugar please......

I like to tell stories. I like to be told stories even more. And that’s why I like movies that tell a nice story. Hope and a Little Sugar is nice story, but it has not been well told.

Tanuja Chandra has 3 strong characters in this movie, Amit Sial playing a budding photographer, Anupam Kher as father of an NRI played by Vikram Chatwal, and Mahima Chaudhary, a confectioner married to Vikram. Tanuja weaves the lives of these three around the despair struck from the 9/11 attacks.

Both Anupam and Mahima are first grade, as is the background score. The director impinges the ’92 riots and the 9/11 attacks to entail the spirit of hope. And the sugar in this movie is that she does this without preaching.

Where this movie disappoints is in telling the story. It simplistically proceeds from a demanding situation to a hope-filled one. Just Too simple for a movie. It leaves you with an incomplete feeling, incomplete in the middle.

The movie is definite play on emotions, but the director needed to spend a lot more reels on them. She might have wanted to avoid the banal emotional tugs, but she has overdone it. The background matter is such that there had to be at least two or three moments that could have made an impact. But everything just passes serenely.

Although the movie is crisp duration wise, the director could have easily avoided random ramblings on Anupam Kher’s past as a Colonel as well as the whole photographer angle on Amil Sial. The character of the confectioner needed to be more developed, a la “Chocolat” style, but that’s a very personal opinion because I had a crush on Mahima and found her intoxicating like aged wine.

Verdict: Worth a watch on your DVD player, not worth multiplex viewing.

Rating:2.5/5