But ‘Do You Wanna Partner’ is plain terrible: there’s not one idea or performance that it can grab on to to save itself from going under, and staying there.
But the execution is so confused and dull that we lose interest in the human sitting in that deadly chair much too soon, and by the time the kicker kicks in, we are supremely unbothered by how things actually went down.
And that’s clearly a scripting triumph: Rai has co-written the film with Kislay (the director of the terrific ‘Aise Hee’), creating a gentle, felt tapestry of dreams and desires.
As Dhunu strains towards her goal – the acquisition of a guitar so she can start her own band – you can sense the strong parallel with Das’ own strivings to make her film.
The device of using voice-overs through which Ana remembers her father (whom we never see) is initially discordant, but it is made up for by Koechlin’s arresting, unvarnished presence through the film.