Life Is Good Review - Just Like Life, This Heart Warming Film By Jackie Shroff & Ananth Mahadevan Is Good Too

Ananth Mahadevan's Life Is Good sees Jackie Shroff as the lead actor after a while, and what a delight it is to see him perform his heart out. When I first heard about this film—the title, actually—I thought it would be something like the 1997 Italian classic Life Is Beautiful. But it wasn't anything like that, but it tells us how good life is, just like that universal classic. There are different perspectives to look at life, and this film is quite close to what happens in real life, unlike Life Is Beautiful, which took us to the World War and POW zone. Ananth Mahadevan's film has nothing out of this world to offer, but it offers life, which makes it an even closer topic.The film is about Rameshwar (Jackie Shroff), who works at a Post office and is living a lonely life. A six-year-old girl, Mishti (Saniya Anklesaria), befriends him and fills his life with joy and enthusiasm. Their friendship grows further, and as Mishti grows as a girl (played by Ananya Vij and Ankita Srivastav), Rameshwar gets used to her company. As we know, a girl has to marry and leave her house one day, and Mishti also has a dreamboy who is set to take her away from Rameshwar. How Rameshwar and Mishti keep their long-distance friendship alive and what happens after her marriage are all you get to see in the film.Without a shadow of doubt, Jackie Shroff has driven the film all alone. His performance as Rameshwar will remind you of many veteran actors who have done lead roles in the second innings of their careers with the same dedication and enthusiasm they had in their debut films. His looks are natural, his accent is lovable, and that loneliness couldn't have been portrayed better. Three girls, Saniya Anklesaria, Ankita Srivastav, and Ananya Vij, perform at their natural best, and even though some scenes are a bit overacted, their cuteness covers the loss. Sunita, Rajit Kapur, Mohan Kapoor, Saanand Verma, and Darshan Jariwala appear in small roles, but all of them look just fine out there.Life Is Good tempts you to believe in the loneliness of life, especially for those who live a disciplined life. If you remember, Mrinal Sen's Bhuvan Shome (1969) had the same character in the centric role, but that was a quite artistic and experimental film that was way ahead of its time. Here, we have Jackie Shroff playing a regular man, and there are no intricate theories attached to him. That's what makes Life Is Good work for you. The friendship bond is pure—nothing vulgar or pathbreaking like Abel Gance's French classic, La Roule/The Wheel (1923). You are entitled to feel the pain and get emotional by the end because it connects heart-to-heart with you.I was stunned by Ananth Mahadevan's direction skills in Me Sindhutai Sapkal (2011), but then I was disappointed seeing some films he directed later. With Life Is Good, he seems to be coming back to form, even though the level is not that high. This film needed simplicity because it is a simple story of friendship, relationships, loneliness, and emotional bonding. He cracked that formula right. He makes the film believable because he does not make anything look unrealistic or overly dramatic. As a whole, Life Is Good makes for a good weekend watch with brilliant output from Jackie Shroff and Ananth Mahadevan.