The Great Indian Butterfly Movie Review: The Great Indian Butterfly: Bond Repair!

It takes a leaf out of contemporary life and focusses on the fragile nature of relationships in current times, with partners trying to balance personal space with intimacy and ambition with compromises.

Director Sarthak Dasgupta's is true to life and its highlight are the nuanced performances by the leading actors, Sandhya Mridul and Aamir Bashir. The film is written well and will definitely strike a chord with most young couples caught in the same situation. The film is realistic, but not stark at all. In fact, it is rather engaging, a poignant drama.

Briefly, the film's story is about a young couple, Meera (Sandhya) and Krish (Bashir), a typical urban, upper middle class couple, with problems in their marriage. The couple decide to go on a holiday to try and revive their failing bond.

Their vacation centres around sighting a rare butterfly which is supposed to impart peace, happiness and harmony to whosoever sights it. But the journey to Goa kicks off on a discordant note as they miss the flight due to Krish's carelessness.

They now decide to drive all the way to Goa, bickering and fighting. In Goa, the narrative moves back and forth briskly and takes us into their lives in Mumbai. The ghost of their aborted baby and Krish's former girlfriend (Koel Purie) seem to hang over their fragile relationship. Despite their best attempts at rekindling their marriage, matters don't work out smoothly and? andhya walks out on Krish. They find each other again, of course.

The film does not have a conventional story, nor do the proceedings move ahead in a predictable manner, as one knows it in Hindi films. This is a film which is wholly in English, a language which best brings out the nuances of contemporary Indian urban life. The action, if one can call it that, is more on a psychological level.

While the film's use of English turns out be its strength, it also turns out to be its weakness as some of the dialogues are a little hard to relate to. Also, one feels that Sarthak stretches the metaphor of the elusive butterfly a wee bit too much. But what keeps the film going is really the clever piece of writing by Sarthak and the chemisty between his lead pair.

Sandhya and Aamir crackle on screen together and are a perfect foil to each other. Sandhya turns in a powerful performance as Meera. It is riveting, comes from the gut, is well nuanced and very effective. Her Meera is very believable.

Aamir too manages to match up to her histrionics with his subtler style of acting. Both actors turn in consummate performances. They are brilliantly supported by Koel Purie in a small but significant cameo.

Barry John is passable, however, the film seems to drag in those bit when he delivers his philosophical musings on the great Indian butterfly. As for the rest, the film seems to move at a fairly decent pace and keeps you hooked onto the lives and times of Krish and Meera and their search for the elusive butterfly.

'The Great Indian Butterfly' is a clever piece of work by director Sarthak Dasgupta. He manages to make a film which is bound to strike a chord with urban audiences.