Shoojit Sircar’s 2018 masterpiece October is more than a conventional romance movie. For that very reason, it calls one for a cathartic revisit every October. The very string that pieces together the story is the intricacy of the human condition, and because we’re not innately simple, this story is layered and complex as well. The film follows Dan (Varun Dhawan), a careless hotel intern who never takes life seriously. To his friends, he is a carefree fellow, bored and unserious about his future. Suddenly, he finds himself in emotional turmoil when his colleague Shiuli (Banita Sandhu) falls down from the hotel’s terrace and falls into a coma.
The film, in utter rush, becomes slow afterwards. Dan and Shuili’s relationship is nothing more or less than ordinary kinship between colleagues. They occasionally exchange glances, chat with each other occasionally, and hangout with their friends. Yet Shuili’s last sentence before her accident was “Where is Dan?” This single sentence tied him to Shuili. Dan abandons his job, his friends, and risks his future to show up for Shuili everyday. He does this without knowing whether she would wake up or not, remember him or not, and recover or not.
What drives him is kindness, in its most raw depiction. It is not transactional and demands no reciprocation at all. He at some point asks a question: “Do you do everything for chance?” He lets everything in his life go because he doesn’t. The fragility of someone’s life, the unbearable possibility of a person turning into a haunting memory, and his desperate need to register in his mind that he was there for a friend. All of this stems out of a person who is rebellious to the world around him. Dan, throughout the film, never once takes the pressure of the world. Not because he is privileged or secure, but because he sees the world with his own distinct lens.
He asks questions about what is okay and what society tells us is okay. That makes him a rebel at heart, but only because he chooses unconditional kindness and questions why it is that one seeks a reward for every kind gesture one makes in this world. Dan discovers answers to these difficult questions entirely through the narrative arc of the film. His efforts are constantly met with futility. He is given no hope by the doctors despite regularly showing up and assisting with minor chores. Shuili’s uncle advocates for removing her ventilator as the expenses become unsustainable. Dan, however, refuses to give up on her. His efforts seem useless and under-appreciated by most. Yet it makes the biggest difference.
He reads to her, talks to her, and brings her favorite Jasmine flowers which only bloom in October. The ordinariness of those flowers resonate with Dan’s attempts to get Shuili wake up from a coma. Jasmine, most directly symbolizes impermanence. Their lifespan is ephemeral. Shuili mirrors those and passes away at a young age. When Dan first encounters the flowers, he recklessly ignores them. Shuili, on the other hand, collects them keenly. As the film progresses, Shuili transforms from a normal colleague to the very center of Dan’s life. He is now unable to ignore the flowers and collects the fallen petals, just like Shuili.
When the film ends, there is no satiated resolution. Shuili never fully recovers and confesses her love. Shuili’s family suffers from immense pain after the tragic loss of their young daughter. Dan gets to tell her that he is still curious why she asked about him the day she fell. He never gets an answer. He only hears his mumbled name. But resolution was never the point at all. October was about Dan’s choices. His unwavering struggle without a prospect. By the end of the film, Dan not only gets his job back but it is way better now. He gets in touch with the friends he lost along the way. Most importantly, he keeps the Jasmine flower tree in Shuili’s lawn. So a part of her, who shaped him into who he is today, remains with him forever.
This movie is Bollywood at its finest. No commercial endeavor, no musical fillers. Just peak performances and a plot that articulates transition. Something that feels like a chilly gust of wind on the face, signalling October has arrived. Meekly, silently. Once we succumb to it, it will be over. Like a lost life and a Night Jasmine flower.
Happy Watching!
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