Goodbye Movie Review: Goodbye, starring Amitabh Bachchan, Rashmika Mandanna and Neena Gupta, has a story about a family dealing with the death of a loved one and how that still manages to bring the family closer. The trailer pretty much told us that this would be a bitter-sweet emotional ride, and the movie doesn't fail at about being that. There are some issues I have with a certain theme of the film -which I am sure the majority of the audience might have a different thought on it - but otherwise, Goodbye touches your heart and how! Goodbye Song Chann Pardesi: A Soothing Melody Highlighting Amitabh Bachchan, Neena Gupta’s Beautiful Relationship in Reel.

After a night of partying following winning her first case as a lawyer, Tara (Rashmika Mandanna) wakes up the next morning with a hangover and the news of her mother's death. Her father Harish (Amitabh Bachchan) has been calling up his children and looking after funeral arrangements, while also simultaneously coping up with the grief of losing his beloved.

As the kids arrive - save for one, Harish feels they aren't committed to the loss of their mother, while Tara feels her mother Gayatri (Neena Gupta) would have hated the rituals around her funeral. Flashbacks teach us that Gayatri has been the sweet bridge between the 'conservationist' Harish and the children, especially the rebellious Tara. Now with that bridge gone, the father and the children need to find that sense of togetherness again as they bid the mother a final farewell.

Watch the Trailer:

I like to see Goodbye as an amalgamation of two movies - one that is a family drama about bonding in the face of Life's most inevitable tragedy, and the other an incisive look into the need for rituals surrounding major events like birth and death. Goodbye won over me when it was the former film, the emotional scenes truly striking a chord with me as a viewer, especially this is also a year when this writer lost a beloved someone in his own family.

Yes, the theme isn't new, as we have had similar films coming out in the past in Bollywood itself, namely Ramprasad Ki Thervi and Pagglait. Goodbye isn't all emotional and dramatic either. It still finds time to seek humour even in an event like funeral (again nothing new, though I do recommend the satire of Lijo Jose Pelissery's Ee Ma Yau for those who haven't watched it), The 'know it all' uncle, the 'mourning' yet gossipy aunties, the fact that the bereaving family members need to double and triple-task while in their grief - the incidents feel relatable.

Mostly, the humour doesn't stick its landing - when the elder son arrives at his home with his American wife, he slips on the steps and sprains his back while rushing to be near his mother's corpse. But the next instant the scene turns emotional, and I was wondering why the need to add the comedic touch before. Even the gossipy aunties scenes feel cliched and pandering to a stereotype, and also very much distracting.

That said, Goodbye succeeds in the first half at least in establishing the strife between the family members. Particularly standout is the pre-interval scene when Harish awkwardly listens to his son and his wife engaging in sex the same night as the mother's funeral and berates him for that, only for the plates to turn on him and how he hilariously tries to save face. Though no one has the gumption to tell him that people process sorrow in different manners, some indulge in eating and some in sex. A conversation Goodbye never bothers to explore afterwards.

The second half of Goodbye sees the family try to work out their differences as they go to a holy place to immerse Gayatri's ashes. Sunil Grover's cameo is very likeable in these portions, though I think this is the time I need to recall why I didn't like the 'second film' within Goodbye here. Goodbye puts the spotlight on the necessity of rituals surrounding events like funerals and how most of us are clueless about what these rituals signify.

Through Tara's character, Goodbye questions these rituals but doesn't rebel against them. In fact, it asks the non-believers among us to let things be and reiterate people can mourn in anyway,  because faith is just science without the research, right? Would have been okay with this aspect, if the film also maintained that balance and didn't end up in somehow indulging in the blind faith, even at the excuse of calling it grief-processing. When the elder son goes bald near the end of the film, after showing hesitation to do so earlier in the name of a ritual, or Tara believing for a moment that a crow has her mother's soul, it feels like the movie submitting itself to the same 'blind faith' that it, for a moment or two, tried to question. Despite how beautifully Sunil Grover's character tries to sweeten the deal.

Of course, can we blame Goodbye for doing so? Gone are the days where Shah Rukh Khan can have the audacity to say 'Just because a custom is ancient, does not mean it is right' in Swades. Or Paresh Rawal exposing how the hair-cutting rituals lead to a booming wig-making industry in OMG - Oh My God. Bollywood these days faces relentless attacks from bigots who call it 'Hinduphobic' and therefore needs to be cautious, and in that caution, we can never expect at least mainstream Hindi cinema to question stuff with gumption, like say, a Malayalam or Tamil film industry. Goodbye: Rashmika Mandanna Shares Her Experience Working With Amitabh Bachchan.

And yet despite my disappointment, Goodbye still made me fall in love with its characters. It is hard not to do so, when Amitabh Bachchan delivers one of his most heartbreaking monologues in recent times as he immerses his wife's ashes, and left me utterly in tears. Or when Pavail Gulati's character calls out his mom to ask if she wants chaat, only for him to despairingly remember she is no more. Or even that scene where Harish and Tara rebond over how he and Gayatri began their romance through a kite, shown in an interesting manner through animated album photo case that uses the face of a much younger Bachchan (though, in an afterthought, the scene felt creepy when you remember Harish was 15 years older than Gayatri). Every scene where the family members bond with each other, it is bound to touch you.

Sure, the track of the family not being able to contact the youngest son felt forced and silly. It is explained that he was on a mountaineering expedition, but it is hard to believe he could not charge his phone on the way back and could only do so at a railway canteen. Doesn't the makers know that trains do have charging points these days?  Same goes for Tara's 'Muslim' boyfriend and how Harish might have an issue with it, that is merely touched upon but never explored. Apart from these 'forced' drama elements, the rest of the family sequences do tick, abetted by a couple of lovely tracks from Amit Trivedi.

The performances are fabulous. Amitabh Bachchan portrays both the hardnosedness and the vulnerability of his grieving widower character with immaculate ease, and he is particularly brilliant in the immersion scene. The South twang in her accent aside, Rashmika Mandanna gives a good account of herself in her Hindi debut, standing magnificently to one of Indian cinema's biggest legends with high confidence. Pavail Gulati is simply fabulous as the wannabe obedient elder son, hilarious in the scene where he is asked to cut his hair and nails the emotional beats in the aforementioned chaat scene. Wish Neena Gupta has a bigger role, but she is winsome in each sequence she is in. Elli AvrRam, Ashish Vidyarthi, Sahil Mehta, Abhishekh Khan et al in the supporting cast do their parts well.

Yay!

- Amitabh Bachchan, Rashmika and Pavail Gulati

- Emotional Scenes

Nay!

- Struggles to Strike a Balance Between Faith and Blind Faith

- A Couple of Plot Elements Feel Forced for Drama's Sake

Final Thoughts

Goodbye doesn't always tick all the right boxes, but it still manages to be plenty likeable. The comic touches and the debate of traditions vs progression feel awkwardly structured, but Goodbye finds its beating heart in its emotional scenes and the performances of its cast, especially Amitabh Bachchan, Rashmika and Pavail Gulati.

Rating:3.0

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 06, 2022 08:16 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).