Tere Sang

Fifteen-year-old Mahi (Sheena Shahabadi) is going to be a mommy,and 17-year-old Kukoo aka Kabir (Ruslaan Mumtaaz) a daddy. The central idea has been stolen from Juno,the bittersweet indie Hollywood hit about teenage pregnancy,parenthood and responsibility. If only Satish Kaushik had retained more of the honesty of the original,Tere Sang would have been a revolutionary Hindi film.

Even if the conception is less than immaculate,it has lumped on too much champagne —it’s a starry night,the “kidults” are in a camp,they get high and they do the thing — the camera stays decorously out of the tent. All we see are shadows merging. The same confusion colours the film: should it present the first pair of teenage Indian kids who have sex,with the girl pushing,and the boy pulling? Or should it soft-soap everything? The words “pregnancy” and “abortion” are mentioned only for form’s sake. No consequences are explored,and a terrific opportunity to say something relevant on such an important issue is lost.

Kaushik cops out majorly. Mahi is like that — attention-seeking,looking-for-love— only because she gets no attention from her ever-busy parents (Rajat Kapoor and Neena Gupta),not because she is a hormonally charged 15-going-on-16 willing lass. Instead of throwing up his hands,Kabir is determined to take care of his baby,and will do anything — from hauling bricks to gas cylinders — to make ends meet while on an idyllic retreat to a hilly cottage. The parents are against them,so the only option is to run away,see?

In the most improbable twist of all the improbable twists in the film,Mahi’s outraged father is forced into defending his daughter in court. “Yeh sab sirf meri galati hai,” he says piously,as the judge (Anupam Kher) looks on in befuddlement.Really? And we always thought it took two.