'Goodbye' Review: A Middling Exploration of Grief Has Its Moments

The character of a ‘maa’ (mother) is a staple of Bollywood films that need their audiences to leave theatres crying – which is evident from the way the relationship between a mother and her children has been portrayed for decades.

Goodbye, written and directed by Vikas Bahl, is one such film that uses the motif of a mother’s love to push the audience to feel something but it pushes too far.

Neena Gupta plays Gayatri Bhalla, who passes away after a heart attack, prompting her kids from all over the world to come back home to Chandigarh where her husband Harish (Amitabh Bachchan) lives with their dog ‘Stupid’.

What ensues is a confusing family drama that is trying to make so many conflicting points that it makes none with conviction.

Harish and Gayatri’s daughter Tara (Rashmika Mandanna) is a lawyer who won her first case and was out celebrating with her friends when her mother passed away.

She and Harish are at constant loggerheads at the funeral even as she deals with the guilt of having missed her mother's last call.

In a Baghban hangover, Harish constantly throws taunts and jibes at his children for ‘being too busy’, or ‘not caring’. One such incident is him asking their son Angad (Sahil Mehta) to order beer also simply because he’s eating butter chicken.

The kids aren’t easy to root for either. Karan (Pavail Gulati) and his wife Daisy (Elli AvrRam) fly down from the US. Karan, a workaholic, takes business calls even as his mother’s funeral procession takes place.

Amid all this, we see Harish following all the instructions his friend PP (Ashish Vidyarthi) gives about the rites and rituals, ignoring Tara who is getting increasingly agitated as time passes. There’s also Gayatri’s friends, who are busy trying to decide what their group chat should be named and ‘Gone Gayatri Gone’ is a contender.

As all of this unfolds, the film never tells you what exactly the message is – is Goodbye trying to say that children ‘these days’ don’t care about their families? Is it saying that parents can sometimes be too set in their ways? Is it making a commentary on the way people behave at funerals? Is it a study of grief and death?

Till the end, the film stumbles through one scene after another, punctuated by comic scenes that mostly land.

But the emotional core that films like Ramprasad Ki Tehrvi and Pagglait had is missing, courtesy mostly to a unconvincing script.

There are some extremely effective emotional scenes but most are either so drawn out or so chock full of exposition that they don’t work.

Amitabh Bachchan as the stoic and brooding man who is grappling with the loss of his wife, proves his mettle yet again. His monologue with Gayatri’s ashes is one of the film’s most gripping scenes.

Complimenting Amitabh’s character brilliantly and effortlessly is Neena Gupta, who is a delight to watch on-screen at all points.

As for Rashmika Mandanna (she makes her Bollywood debut with Goodbye), the actor’s skill shines through in serious scenes but it doesn’t translate when the film’s mood shifts.

Pavail Gulati is perhaps the most effective character otherwise – as he goes through the stages of grief till he finally lands on acceptance, the actor plays every scene with sensitivity and grace.

Elli AvrRam, as Daisy, has a poorly written character (one that doesn’t move beyond the clueless foreigner) but her performance is earnest and effective even with the little she is given.

Amit Trivedi perfectly captures the film's soul with his music, even as the script falters. The background score is neither too demanding of attention, nor easy to ignore completely, and that credit goes to Trivedi.

Overall, Goodbye is constantly asking you to feel something or the other till it comes to an end with a half-baked lesson on ‘compromise’. A more concise script, fewer characters, and trust in the audience would've gone a long way for a film like Goodbye.

Goodbye hit theatres on 7 October.

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