Comment by a viewer

Comment posted by Abhijit, a viewer:

I got an opportunity to be part of screening of the film “68 Pages”

It is a unique experience revealing true life picture of the HIV epidemic. The story captures the life of five different individuals who are HIV positive and presents the trauma of their lives and also the trauma faced by one woman who is trying to make difference in their lives. It was an eye opener since I have interacted with HIV positive people very closely. The film creates a perfect balance between drama and light scenes that ensures audience’s attachment with the characters and you become more concerned about their lives.

Some may feel that its not commercial cinema but I would rate it as an intelligent commercial cinema. I would be bothered about the success of this movie since it has immense capacity to make valuable difference in lives of general population and professionals.

A melodies song of the movie (Nikle the akele ab sang kitne paao hai) acts as an anchor and takes you on a journey of happiness, concerns, worries and the decisions that each character made from starting to end. This movie touches several aspects like complications in relationships as they are not open, unspoken and hidden human bonding, importance of psychosocial support and positive living.

Sridhar and Vivek as story writers have carefully developed the graph for each character. The performances of the actors were quite convincing and special kudos to Jayati Bhatia for bringing inner most feelings of a prostiture along with cross Dresser (Uday), counselor (Mauli Gangurly), and the gay couple (Joy and Sherrin ) The dialogues were meaningful. Especially when the cross dresser tells the Counselor “Pyar to sabko mangta hai naa” or the prostitute expresses her desire “Doctor to nahi banaaongi, usey to main aap jaisa banaungi!”. The film does not stereotype the gay couple or make mockery of the cross dresser. The roles are devised close the real life individuals.

The movie not only creates an awareness about the trauma of HIV postive people also gives hope to fight with the disease and lead a normal life.

In today’s world with so much stress and tension the film talks about each one of us having a “worry tree” like Mansi’s Diary and her 68 Pages