Daily Recco, July 20: Waiting, the story of hope and beyond

Hard times reveal true friends, goes the adage. It is also in such times that you meet and bond with the unlikeliest of people.

Take Prof Shiv Nataraj and Tara Kapoor Desphande, for instance, in Waiting (2015). The lead roles essayed brilliantly by Naseeruddin Shah and Kalki Koechlin speak of how a tragedy and the shadow of a looming loss brings together a middle-aged professor and a young media professional. Chalk and cheese, apples and oranges, call it as you please, but that’s what Shiv and Tara are like. Nothing in common — age, personalities or even their lingo. Nothing, except the common thread of a possible bereavement of their respective spouses.

Waiting is a poignant story that focuses on the lives of those in the hospital waiting rooms. That endless trepidation brings their lives to a grinding halt, and they forget to even cry (or laugh) at things.

Shiv has accepted his life and his wife’s comatose condition. In the autumn of his life, he has come to a reconciliation with the situation and tries to find newer people, meanings, patterns and associations. And here is when he hand-holds Tara and guides her through her own grief. None but Naseeruddin Shah could have essayed that with such panache and élan.

Kalki as Tara is the perfect embodiment of the young traumatised wife — replete with her rebelliousness, defiance, mood swings and temper tantrums that eventually pave the way to bring out the joie de vivre that lies underneath it all.

Kudos to director Anu Menon. The film could have easily become a tale of soppy sentimentality and left us utterly depressed as we look back at our own losses. But no, Waiting brings with it the hope for the life that lies beyond the loss.

On Naseeruddin Shah’s birthday today, watch Waiting on Disney+Hotstar as a tribute to the actor.

Also Read: Watch 15, Park Avenue for the painful reality of a caregiver