Famed Iranian director Majid Majidi goes to Bollywood with his debut Hindi film Beyond The Clouds without realising that his realism and quest for perfection is something the Indian audience isn’t ready for. His film can be termed as a perfect ‘Majid Majidi vehicle’ that can be sent to festivals but with no commercial value, it was bound to be off-screen within a week, especially in Pakistan where the Avengers were all set to snatch the screens away!

The film revolves around the life of Amir and his sister Tara, who are both in their twenties – played by Ishaan Khatter and Malavika Mohanan, both making their Hindi film debut – and find themselves in trouble because of the former’s way of life. Although Tara is divorced, she resorts to other ways to make both ends meet and when Akshi (Gautam Ghose) tries to take advantage of her, she injures him so badly that he ends up in a coma, while Tara goes behind the bars. Amir tries to nurse back Akshi so that he can tell the police that Tara is innocent; however, the arrival of Akshi’s mother and daughters changes the whole scenario. While Amir tries to befriend them so that Akshi can act as his sister’s freedom-from-jail card, Tara finds out that life in prison can only get worse than better for her. Does Tara get out of prison, does Akshi tell the police that what happened was an act of self-defense, does Amir finally get the money he deserved so he can bid farewell to the life of crime; watch the film to know more.

The film’s biggest drawback is its slow pace which was something people didn’t expect, for the trailer comprised of the film’s faster shots. The attention to detail is a classic Majidi but the audience that watched Baaghi 2 a few weeks back wasn’t ready to go slow. There are similarities with Slumdog Millionaire which won international acclaim for showing the poor slums of India; Majid Majidi like Danny Boyle brought the foreigner’s perspective but failed to excel where an Indian director could have done wonders. Both Ishaan Khatter and Malavika Mohanan do an excellent job and they have a bright future ahead but they must first prove that they can do commercial films before taking on an ambitious project like Beyond The Clouds. Even AR Rahman’s score seems out-of-place and it would have been better had the script and the execution been a little stronger as that would have brought in more audience.