Take 2 review: Shallow exploration of the reigniting of relationships

Directed by Angad Bawa, the short film Take 2 explores relationships and the rediscovery of one's creative passions. Starring veteran actor Ram Gopal Bajaj, Take 2 also marks the short-film debut of popular young TV actress Mahima Makwana.

Ishranth (Bajaj) is a disillusioned filmmaker who has given up on his creative work and lives a secluded life at a hill station. One day, his granddaughter Natasha (Makwana) decides to go and spend some time with him, not having met him for 16 years.

Natasha is your typical millennial. She makes vlogs and is on the lookout to connect with her virtual audience, in the process momentarily forgetting the real people around her. But as she settles into her grandfather’s house, she realizes that there is more to him than being an old man. The film tracks their relationship as she learns about Ishranth's guilt-ridden and troubled past.

Take 2 begins with Ishranth’s mindscape, the events that haunt his dreams, paralysing any attempt to rekindle his art. As a fellow creative artiste, Natasha asks him about his work, wishing to engage with him. Commenting on contemporary filmmakers, Ishranth says, “No one has the patience to create… we don’t have risk-takers.”

He sees himself as an “extinct volcano”, with nothing more left to say to the world. However, Natasha finds that is not true and hopes to reignite the passion in him.

The film is pegged on the idea that a relative outsider can come in and change the life of someone they haven’t met for years and who has been stuck with a certain mindset for a period of time. The stilted dialogues make this exploration tedious and the events seem to plod rather than flow organically.

It is also rather unbelievable that Natasha visits her grandfather after 16 long years and doles out clichés after stealthily reading his personal diary! One wishes there was a more reciprocal and engaged relationship that gets reignited between the old man and his granddaughter. The film’s heart is in the right place, but the script falters.

Bajaj and Makwana have also acted together in the TV series Rishton Ka Chakravyuh that was aired on the channel STAR Plus and the two share a certain camaraderie. 

Take 2 was screened as part of the New York Indian Film Festival 2020 which was held online this year.