Starfish Movie Review

Beautiful journey through the depths of the underwater world as we witness a gripping tale of grief and healing unfold before our eyes.

Story: The movie follows a diver from a dredging company looking for answers related to her painful past. A twist of fate brings her face-to-face with someone who reshaped the course of her life. Will it have a bearing on the mystery she’s trying to solve?

Review: Adapted from Bina Nayak’s novel Starfish Pickle, the film opens in picturesque Malta, where a deeply troubled Tara Salgaonkar (Khushali Kumar) leads a diving mission to recover the remains of the naval crew after an explosion on board. After that, her mother Sukanya (Vidya Malavade) leads a wild life, which is the result of panic attacks and dark secrets in her past, leading her to commit suicide and call herself Tara. mistake What follows is Tara trying to figure out what her mother was saying and why she took this step. While searching for this answer, Tara befriends the sea captain Aman Sharma (Tusharr Khanna) and then the musician Neel (Ehan Bhatt) closes.

The most striking aspect of the film is its visual appeal. Cinematographer Jim Edgar and director Akhilesh Jaiswal capture the oceanic life and the underwater scenes splendidly, including the well-shot rescue operations. The locales of Malta and Sicily and the nightlife are shot beautifully. However, the screenplay by Akhilesh and Aditya Bhatnagar (as novelist Bina Nayak gets writing credits) seems fragmented, and lacks a superfluous quality. This is partly because the narrative focuses too hard on Tara and her emotional turmoil instead of the storytelling. The premise of how guilt and uncertainty can have repercussions on relationships is touched upon superficially but not delved into. This also means there’s no depth to the love stories, which are a crucial part to her tale of self-discovery.

Starfish Movie

While Akhilesh handles the direction decently, the narrative often seems like just a string of events with the protagonist at the centre. Tara’s quest also includes an encounter with a spiritual and music guru, Arlo (Milind Soman), who is pivotal to her life’s story. After a confrontational sequence that’s the film’s turning point, the sequences seem more hurried. The writers intended to maintain the mystery of Tara’s past, but the abrupt ending makes it more ambiguous than open-ended.

Khushalii Kumar pulls off her role as a diver and a wild child well. She’s especially good in the second half when her emotional turmoil escalates. While Tusharr Khanna and Ehan Bhat are passable, Milind Soman is good in his brief role. The film’s music is hummable, especially the folk song Madhaniya redux and the club number, Kudiye Ni Teri.

The film has a good premise, and the lead’s role had scope for a strong character arc. A tighter and more coherent screenplay would have enabled the narrative to reach its true potential and depth. Still, the movie is a visual treat to watch.

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