Morning Walk: Offers nothing new

Rating: 1.5 out of 5*

Starring: Anupam Kher, Sharmila Tagore, Divya Dutta, Rajat Kapoor, Nargis, Shayan Munshi and Avika Gor

Director: Arup Dutta

Professor Joymohan (Kher) stays alone in Kolkata. He is a heart patient and when he gets a severe heart attack on his birthday he realizes he needs to spend as much time with his family in Mumbai as possible. He then goes to Mumbai to his son Indra (Rajat), daughter in law Rita (Divya) and grand daughter Gargi (Avika). While Indra and Gargi are delighted, Rita is not so happy about his arrival. She makes her displeasure more vocal. Joymohan starts going for morning walks to the nearby park in the mornings. During one such morning walk he meets his old student Neelima (Tagore) and her daughter Anjali (Nargis) who wants to do a doctorate in the US. What secret Joymohan and Neelima share and what happens after it comes out forms the rest of the plot.

Morning Walk offers nothing new. The makers aren’t focused with one issue but try to pack in a lot of things together. Some sequences like those between Anupam Kher and Balika Vadhu girl Avika Gor and between Sharmila Tagore and Kher have been penned and enacted well. But the displeasure of Divya Dutta about her father in law’s arrival is ditto in the lines of Baghban. Arup Dutta has handled few emotional moments well and is technical sound considering it is his debut directorial venture. However he is failed by a lackluster script. The music by Jeet Ganguly is extremely tuneful and worth a buy.

Veterans Anupam Kher and Sharmila try to rise above the script and succeed to an extent. Garam Masala girl Nargis needs a crash course in acting. Shayan Munshi is passable. Divya Dutta is good and so is Rajat Kapoor. Avika Gor is cute and immensely likeable.

Morning Walk is a movie that doesn’t need a trip to the movie hall, but it wont harm you if you catch it on a lazy Sunday noon on home video. -Sampurn Media