Movie Review: Gone Kesh

Enakshi (Shweta Tripathi) is a schoolgirl who starts losing hair. Her lower-middle class parents try to do everything they can to find a cure for her but to no avail. She's diagnosed with alopecia, a condition where the patient starts shedding hair rapidly, and soon loses all of it. A hormone treatment is advised but that leads to more complications. She starts losing self-esteem, especially after she gets rejected by prospective grooms because of her condition. At this juncture, dance, her childhood passion, comes to her rescue. She resigns from her job in the local mall, which is organising a dance competition, to take part in it. Love too beckons at this point and she finds a partner who doesn't find her condition repulsive. Afterwards, it's shown that thanks to taking part in the competition, she is able to open her own dance class and is leading a fulfilling life.

Depression, they say, is a silent killer. Low self-esteem is said to be one of the causes that fuel depression. Everyone wants to look good and if a disease robs you of your beauty, then chances are high that you might develop depression. In such times, those around you, especially your parents should become your pillars for support and that's the most positive thing about the film. The parents don't blame God, or fate, they don't berate themselves or their child but vow to fight on. Her father, especially, is shown to be quite sensitive towards her feelings and stands up for her at every moment she feels low. He's even willing to forego his dream of taking his wife of 25 years on an air trip to the Taj Mahal. It's good that the director hasn't just focussed on the protagonist but people around her as well. The man who loves her, for instance, had a crush on her since college but was unable to reveal his feelings. The side track of him receiving relationship advice from one outgoing friend offers up some lighter moments. The conversations between her father and his colleagues, as also that between the husband and wife, feel like snatches of actual conversations. The film is set in Siliguri and the small town ambience is well maintained throughout.

The film's main theme is fighting depression and accepting yourself as you are. Shweta Tripathi is as natural as they come essaying both the phases. There's no theatricality, no melodrama in her performance. She looks ever so young in a school uniform and the transition from that age to that of a woman in her twenties is kind of flawless. She's wearing a prosthetic to look bald and kudos to the make-up department for a job well done. Vipin Sharma and Deepika Amin, playing her father and mother are in fine fettle as well.

All-in-all, Gone Kesh is an old fashioned film about real world issues that will make you smile as well as ponder at the same time.

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