Helicopter Eela: A non helicopter mom's Review!

Helicopter parenting just got glamourised coating and a very generous, glossy one!

#HelicopterEela gives me that feeling of envy at being lazy and neglecting my own oomph factor. Looking at Kajol, I feel dumb. Her son is probably the same age as mine and she looks so well groomed all the time. Single parenting seems to have done wonders. I am jealous. She has not a crease on her face, not a freckle and definitely no eye sags. Who wouldn't want a mother who looks that drop dead gorgeous? Even if she crams herself in every space that belongs to him.

They have taken their shots and images of this hovering brand of parenting from existing mommy portals. The typical running behind the kid in a bus with a tiffin and ten thousand instructions. The mock horror on the face when you see the kid cycling free hand. The following the kid on picnic spots. They could not get more original than that. Obviously this is the portal hyped parenting. The makers have no clue how verdant this form parenting is and the ramifications of it on the children recipient of it. This dude turns out very cool with a happier 'Meri Maa ki Parchaai' rock number, inadvertently endorsing it and to an extent enjoying it with his friends. He is complaining about his mom stalking his Twitter, Facebook and much later in the film exasperatedly announces that his mother dear has opened a Facebook account and he won't ever accept her request. In the end though, he proudly accepts it as mother dear won all hearts by singing on the stage.

Dude (Riddhi Sen~ a National Award winner) is so forgiving and tolerant. His anger fizzles off as soon as it rises. Maybe the Kajol effect! You can't stay angry with Kajol after all. Veteran Actor she is!

So what if she plunders her way into his conversation with friends or checks his clothes? So what if she cannot keep a piece of gossip to herself and creates a rift between his two friends? So what she promises to not follow him but nevertheless  forges her way everywhere into the college. They two land up in the same class! They seem to forget where college ends and home begins or viceversa. What were they studying anyway? Which stream? This is not of consequence for College to makers of film is Canteen, one classroom, various clubs and a Drama Theatre Hall.The mother saunters right in and out, saying whatever she wants to whoever she wants including the Principal. (Rather powerless creature)

The son, however, takes it in his stride and offers olive branches all the time. A situation we feel is going to just pull in the friction goes kaboooommm!

Sense of humour is applied in dollops instead of letting the tension be.

The moms may just go in justification mode on their helicopter services as d'Accord because Kajol immortalises it now.

There were few sensitive moments, if they would have let them palpable. The camera doesn't hover or stay enough.

Son asks a poignant, relevant question 'Where is Eela?'

The mother does not get it at all. She is so well entrenched in her role of Mothering him, perfecting this one project that she fails to get the fact that the son's existence envelops her every minute.

She did not move past that provider stage. She has to get to 'Step back stage. She is unwilling to budge. Her being refuses to allow any appeals to move on with other roles.

There was another sensitive unfolding of the Age gap when Kajol is shown sitting alone on a bench of the College. Her attempts to befriend spurned. Her skills don't extend to now swishing with the young gals. Her son observes comprehending her predicament.

I wish they had stayed in this zone of rare understanding of a mother who due to being a single parent went on an overdrive to bring everything for the child, abandoned by a father.

What a silly father, leaving a thriving family on a flimsy, silly reason!

Single parenthood too sounds such a cake walk. Everything happens so smoothly. Their lifestyle so lavish and upmarket.

Where are the mother's restless, sleepless nights of loneliness of struggling with various decisions, milestones and tantrums of a growing kid?

This kid is just hustled and seen making faces and a happy go lucky resigned recipient of mother's loving attention.

He never seemed to want to know what happened to father?

He never ran fever.

He never looked wistfully at a family or even a thing that the mother found it helpless to achieve.

There are rare, lonely struggles single moms go through daily. Feeling unsupported, drained, fatigued with doing it all alone.

Even if I have a supportive, rock solid spouse, parenting at so many junctures demanded all our resources. There were days when I wore the first thing that jumped into my hand from the cupboard. I remember days I forgot to comb my hair because I ran out to the doctor or  because heavier chores left me tired.

Single motherhood on the Proper Bombay side may be easier I suppose. The husband named everything on her before leaving but is it enough to take care of emotional needs?

The mother ramrods her way into his son's college, son's canteen and friends. They scream, converse and casually interact in the college.

I entered a college for my dude's admission and felt awfully awkward. 

This mom is super confident, rags a kid in the class and already gives an interview to TOI for entering college after 22 years. Amazing contacts she has.

Everything falls in place for her except few misfortunes like not getting the Lifebuoy Ad but getting Anu malik's attention and a Remix that Amitabh goes ga ga about after years...

Neha Dhupia was just sitting idle. 

She throws shoes at students. That is enough to send her packing. This is the most reputed college in town we are talking about for God's sake! Even if she missed the aim, the throwing is abusive enough. Our Hindi films have a way of explaining away abuse so adroitly.

What musical or acting talent she possesed anyway for the Principal to suffer her ?

The only mature presence seemed Riddhi Sen, the tolerant and resigned son, who actually eggs his mother to find herself. All it required of course was to sing a song on the stage of a College Fest to find the real Eela and have likes on social media. Some Benchmark of Finding Self! 

Empowerment Gurus warn that media likes aren't the ultimate goal but in this single mom's portfolio it is the penultimate moment after son braves the shoes and jeans to get mom onstage.

College forgot to employ security personnel for the Day?

If you must see the movie, see for impeccable Kajol so you can tell your wife 'Dekho usko!'

If you must see, you must to tell your son 'Dekho kitna achcha baccha he, maa ke sab sitam hus ke sahe... Only you keep throwing tantrums...'

If you must see, you must for the song 'Yaadon ki Almari' and 'Ruk Ruk Arre Baba Ruk' Kajol's expressions are a steal! She is a stunner!

I envy Kajol for her porcelain clear beauty at 40+. I admire the lovely ironed Kurtis she adorned. Ironed clothes for me are truly special occasions! Even if my kids are grown up, there are crores of chores  multiple decisions to make, tremendous variety of trembling destinations to reach to about their career, daily needs, swinging emotional balances, sibling tussles, health predicaments.

In all this still I found myself and formed a small little island of me.

That was and is the message Helicopter Eela wants to portray that a mom must find an inimitable part of herself so she does not obsess over her child's trivialities. For her obsession focused on a teenager's 'dabba' more than what course he is taking or where his life is headed! I get sleepless nights over my teenage son's life ahead and not what he is upto with his cell phone or check his pants and bags. The concern ends there. This mother is so short-sighted in her view of her son that limited things of his are under scanner.

The parenting nuances are overlooked. The jibes cliché. I worry if my son sees this film. He may turn around and ask me 'Why, you don't love me! You never check me or my belongings?'

I am doomed already.

Must take classes to review my parenting. 

-Sonnal Pardiwala