Beginning with a difference of opinion in the field of reviewing, I would love to recommend a film having an alarmingly precious message for the kids as well as their obsessed parents, even if it tends to be a bit loud, lengthy and dramatic in its on screen execution. Hence admitting the various directorial as well as technical flaws in TAKE IT EASY, it still deserves to be rated as a worth watching film since it touches one of the most relevant issues of the present times related with our kids and the extreme pressure imposed upon them to fulfill their parent’s ambition instead of their own.
Yes, the film is not a very polished product willing to incorporate much more than required with some average and loud performances too featuring many known names. But overall the kids score much above their elders and make you realize the importance of the subject setting a fine example in the climax (inspired from real life examples) and an engaging second half lifting the spirits beautifully. Giving the makers their due for choosing such an important yet off beat subject for a commercial film, TAKE IT EASY has a valuable message both for the parents as well as the children who have their own set of problems to deal with apart from the expectations to fulfill.
Reminding the mystic master OSHO’s famous discourses on Education and the series titled “SHIKSHA MEIN KRANTI”, the film rightly brings forward the two major evils of our new-age society namely AMBITION and COMPETITION affecting both the parents and their kids quite severely. Admitting the fact that many might not be willing to agree to this very thought at once, if you think humanly then these two particular strong words are in fact the most poisonous words ruining our lives, taking away most of our time and energy in those significant years ranging from 12-35. Further the more dangerous outcome of these two words in the later stages happen to be COMPARISON, ANGER, JEALOUSY, FRUSTRATION and then DEPRESSION resulting in many drastic consequences as reported every year in a repetitive mode.
Apparently the basic theme of relentless pressure and dilemma faced by (mostly) the urban kids to excel in almost everything ranging from studies, sports, arts and other co-curricular activities, was superbly taken up by Raj Kumar Hirani in his 3 IDIOTS too. But the seriousness of its ‘suicide sequence’ and the message of choosing your dream career somewhere got diluted in all Chamatkaars-Balatkaars-Aamir Khan and Comic entertainment factor to be honest. Moreover, where Hirani didn’t accept or acknowledge the inspiration being taken from OSHO’s vision anywhere in the film or in the interviews, TAKE IT EASY proudly does so beginning with a slide having OSHO’s picture on the screen paying its much deserving tribute.
Incidentally the two fathers in the film, willing to mold their kids as per their own ambitions made me remember a casual party meeting with a doctor a couple of years back, where after a few drinks he became emotional and said,
“You know I never wished to be a doctor in my school days……….but my dad did and here I am successfully practicing and doing well off living in a big house. However I always wished to be a painter, living with various colours and canvases around in a single big room.
So now I am planning my son to become the same and have started sending him to art classes too right from a small age.”
“So you are doing the same mistake with your kid what your father did with you!” I replied sending him into a long thinking mode never to get back on the track that night.
And this is exactly the problem with us all when we keep on imposing our unfulfilled ambitions on our kids without asking them what they actually wish to become as per their own likings and preferences.
Coming back to the film, respecting the appreciable effort made by the makers with all noble intentions, I would like to share one particular sequence worth mentioning here that might be able to convince you for giving it a fair chance in the coming days before its taken off the theatres as usual in absence of any viewers.
It’s a classroom scene where a thoughtful teacher is asking the kids about their parent’s profession and then enquiring what they individually wish to become in the future. Within that question-answer session, a little girl stands up and innocently asks her teacher,
“Sir!.............Kya Kuchh Ban-na Itna Zaroori Hai?”
meaning : Sir, Is it really necessary to become something in life?
A worth contemplating question indeed where the kid is pretty confused thinking,
Why cannot we just be and enjoy the life without becoming anything?
Why its so necessary to be something, to reach somewhere, to achieve some goals, to prove something to the others?
Why we cannot forget about that and just follow our own individual passions of life, living to the maximum?
The question does make you stop for a while and think that whether it’s the same life what you had wished for or you are living someone else’s life being thrown into the trap by your elders/parents. More importantly is it now the same game being played by you with your kids too ignoring their own choices and interests or its time to take a decision and let them do what they wish to following their own passions and dreams.
Raising this extremely important and logical point, the makers do hit at the right spot, but I only wish they could have done it with much more class and maturity reaching a wider audience. Yet, even in its present unpolished form TAKE IT EASY does make you think both emotionally and logically as it ends and thus surely needs to be seen along with your kids, as a friend, providing all the support they need apart from your parental love and care. Because may be he or she is willing to talk to you about the choices in mind, but not finding the courage to do so due to the pressure felt.
Ratings : 3 / 5
Note : Relating with the recent controversy over PK, this film too has a sequence where kids are doing a hilarious stage play posing as LORD SHIVA and more. So as per logic TAKE IT EASY should be opposed too with the same arguments given, but I seriously doubt anyone will care to that for this small film with no big star-cast.
