Anupama Chopra reviews "I Want to Talk," the latest drama from director Shoojit Sircar starring Abhishek Bachchan as Arjun Sen, an IIT graduate turned marketing guru whose life is upended by a laryngeal cancer diagnosis. This intimate narrative explores themes of resilience, family dynamics, and finding grace in life's ordinary moments.
The film follows Arjun (Abhishek Bachchan), a cynical marketing professional in America, as he navigates multiple surgeries, unimaginable pain, and a transformed life, while maintaining a complex relationship with his daughter Ria (Ahilya Bamroo). Anupama Chopra examines how Sircar and writer Ritesh Shah avoid easy sentimentality in telling this true story based on the real Arjun Sen's memoir "Raising a Father," while analyzing Abhishek Bachchan's bracingly vanity-free performance.
With deliberate pacing and understated drama that has become Shoojit Sircar's trademark since "Yahaan," "I Want to Talk" marks another thoughtful addition to the director's unique filmography. Anupama Chopra discusses how the film, while occasionally meandering, finds poignance in the ordinary and represents Sircar's continued exploration of the middle ground between arthouse and mainstream cinema.
