The Signature Movie Cast/Actors: Anupam Kher, Kevin Gandhi, Sangeeta Jain, Neena Kulkarni, Ranvir Shorey, Mahima Chaudhary, Annu Kapoor, Manoj Joshi & Others.
The Signature Movie Director: Gajendra Ahire
The Signature Movie Production Company: K.C. Bokadia & Anupam Kher Studio
The Signature Movie Release Date: 4th October, 2024
The Signature Movie Available On: Zee5 OTT Platform
The Signature Movie Released/Available In Languages: Hindi
The Signature Movie Runtime: 1h 36m
The Signature Movie Critic Review:
It is a poignant dilemma familiar to most families. When a loved one is on life support, and prolonging it is unaffordable, can you bring yourself to sign the Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) form?
For retired librarian Arvind Pathak (Anupam Kher), it is unthinkable. It’s easier for his pragmatic son (Kevin Gandhi) and daughter (Sangeeta Jain) who have their own lives to lead.
Director Gajendra Ahire (who had earlier filmed the same story as Anumati in Marathi) successfully spotlights the heartbreaking helplessness of the aged, the understandable pragmatism of the young and the clinical coldness of the medical system.
Arvind will go to any lengths (even think of forging his son’s signature to sell joint property) as he goes, metaphorically door to door, to keep wife Madhu (Neena Kulkarni) alive. When Arvind tells his son, “We are a generation that don’t turn our backs on kartavya, duty”, his clinging to hope is palpable. As he says at one point, “When the doctor talks of my capacity, isn’t it about how many breaths of life I can afford to buy?”
Many of the points it touches are relatable and require debate. Do you let go because the patient is aged? It would seem so when Arvind debates a journalist-duo who can’t help him though their publication had helped raised funds to save a child from cancer. Medical care for senior citizens does need to be addressed.
When Ranvir Shorey (as a parent whose child is on life support) raises hell in the corridor over unreasonable demands (even a callous prescription for meds meant for another patient), the helplessness of the common man at the medical system is universal.
Elevating the life-and-death dilemma is Anupam Kher’s performance as he looks every inch the broken husband, wanting help from any quarter.
However, the making by Ahire is like a director ticking off all the emotional requirements of a tear-jerker. Arvind talking to the comatose, flashbacks to moments with wife, their trip to Europe that was snipped when she fell at the airport and had a haemorrhage, denial of ancestral property, background songs as he travels lonely on a bus or sits in a library, a poor patient begging him to buy meds for her child, Ahire milks it all.
The entire Ambika (Mahima Chaudhary) track looks forced especially with all the last-minute deposits and the climax in the canteen.
The Signature – Watch Or Not?: Watch it for its moments of home truths and for Anupam Kher’s performance.
The Signature Movie Review Score Rating: 2.5 out of 5 (i.e. 2.5/5)
The Signature Movie Official Trailer:
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