Sudip Bandyopadhyay’s debut feature starring the German photocopy machine Mr Soennecken along with Naseeruddin Shah, Sajid Kabir, Aamir Bashir, Naveen Kasturia, a lost phone and destiny has its sweet charming moments.
Nagesh (Naseeruddin Shah) is obsessed with his antique German made photocopy machine – Mr Soennecken, the machine takes space in his household occupying the peace of his daughter in law Aditi (Sonali Kulkarni) as she feels that the antique piece has taken possession of her daughter Tanu (Virti Vaghani) study area. Nagesh’s older son Neeraj (Aamir Bashir) feels for his father but is more worried about his promotion which is overdue for long. Nagesh’s grandson Anu (Sajid Kabir) is a cute and endearing boy who is crazy about cricket and is the only one who feels for Mr Soennecken in the manner his grandfather does.
There is a maternal grandmother’s home a sprawling mansion which is on the verge of getting converted into a hotel and a Dubai return younger son of Nagesh – Nitin (Naveen Kasturia) who brings a state of the art photocopy machine for his father but losses his mobile phone and is forced to stick to an ‘old’ phone of Tanu which keeps eating on battery. While Aditi has nothing much to do then raising concern over Mr Soennecken’s presence in her house whenever she gets time from her household routine. There is a Nani too in veteran actress Beena who introduces Jazz and Sir Don Bradman to Anu. During his visit to his ancestral home, Anu has encountered an inner demon and that keeps on haunting. Nagesh is struggling to make Mr. Soennecken deliver again and is searching for frames that can do his favorite machine good.
All these incidents and sequences are tied with the common thread of destiny and a haunting whisper of hope that things will change. Bandyopadhyay and co-writer Neha Paawar get the seed of the idea right and try to churn a positive movie on life and hope. The problem is that the use of metaphors like Mr. Soennecken, Anu’s hidden demon, the lost phone, the old mansion etc sometimes works and sometimes they turn vague.
However, Bandyopadhyay succeeds in extracting some delightful performances especially from Naseeruddin Shah and the little bundle of talent Sajid Kabir. In a rare occasion, the little wonder Sajid’s cute and innocent enthusiasm matches perfectly with the experience of Naseeruddin Shah making it a refreshing and delightful camaraderie between two generations.
The entire movie however fails to live it up to the expectations and ‘hope’ it creates during the initial reels. Unwanted zest and the baffling nature to keep itself aloof from the masala entertainers by giving reference to popular blockbusters like BAJRANGI BHAIJAAN to say that they are away from escapisms and close to ‘reality’ but later falling in the trap to convey a predictable short love story between Naveen Kasturia and that girl on phone played by Neha Chauhan spoils the charm and the good intentions to make a sweet harmless film.
Apart from Naseeruddin Shah and Sajid Kabir, Aamir Bashir, Naveen Kasturia, Beena impresses with their pious performance but as it happens in this film, Mr Soennecken with all its honest intentions and capacity as an ‘artiste’ (that’s what Naseeruddin Shah calls the antique piece), is not able to give the desired ‘copy’ of hope and life on screen which it promised. Was it ‘destiny’?
