Sona Spa Review

What is it all about

Makrand Deshpande's cinematic adaptation of his own play by the same name is definitely alluring in its concept but is ridiculously banal in its vision and execution with mediocre acting.

The Story

Sona Spa' based on a Hindi Play, written and Directed by Makrand Deshpande, brings the serious issue of lack of sleep due to various reasons that altogether causes unhealthy and tiring life. told through 2 protagonists (sleep workers), Rucha (Shruti Vyas) a billionaire from Mumbai and Ritu (Aahana Kumrah), a middle class girl from Pune.

Rucha wants to sleep for her Billionaire father who doesn't get sleep and Ritu for her sister who is not able to sleep remembering the tragedy in which they lost their mother and brother. Rucha and Ritu start sleeping on behalf of their clients and in the process Live their Dreams. Rucha's client is Choksi, a rich man looking for sleep and Ritu's client is a cop disguised as a head of a company, checking if there is any illegal work going on in 'Sona Spa'.

Complexities emerge however when these Sleep Workers not only sleep on behalf of their sleep deprived clients, but even inhabit the Kingdom of their Dreams.

The Sleep Workers' Dreams becomes manifestations of their client's subconscious mind. As secrets successively spill out into the open, they etch the many machinations of the human mind.

What to look out for

The concept and how Makrand Deshpande loses the grand opportunity to make an erotic adult entertainer out of this innovative intention to trip into the world of dreams . Acting is strictly okay.

What not

Objections to this `Inception' are many but let's not talk about that.. its more interesting to figure out the missed opportunity by Makrand to turn on Sona Spa as an adult erotic entertainer.

`Figure' this.. the sleep workers are all young women and all their clients are men. One is Choskey played by Romi Jaspal who is a complete sleazy material dreaming of erotic cross gender encounters with his keeps. There is also a hint of the two sleep workers lesbian relationship which doesn,t goes further.

A police inspector poses as a TV executive enters as a client to find out any racket going on and meets his ex flame a prostitute who has turned as a sleep worker for good.

Another surprisingly and strange fact of Makrand comes out from Sona Spa... the dreams don.t look like dreams they are visions. Makrand as a filmmaker fails completely in telling us those dreams in cinematic manner. The imagination is completely absent and defying its own concept the sleep workers suddenly get up from their sleep... what are the clients and sleep workers doing when they are not sleeping.

And to make matters more worse.. what made the brilliant talent like Naseeruddin Shah to sign this project and accept the role of this Baba Dayanand who refuses to come out from his chair till the end..

Conclusion: The only way to enjoy Sona Spa is to fall asleep while watching it and dreaming for a better movie yourself. Try it.

Rating *