Sonali Cable

A small-time cable internet operator, Sonali (Rhea Chakraborty), refuses to surrender against the corporate giant, Shining Inc, headed by Vaghela (Anupam Kher), a ruthless businessman who wants her out of the way.

How good is a David vs Goliath story if the David isn’t weak enough and Goliath not the strongest? The movie by debutant writer-director, Charudutt Acharya seems like an earnest attempt to rehash the small trader versus the industrial giant or the battle of the lone entrepreneur against the multinational giant. There is not much that has not been seen and done before in such a story except the only major novelty of it being setup in the Internet industry.

So does the movie take enough advantage to make itself at home in the novelty setting? To an extent, it does but it’s only limited to peppering the dialogues with very non-subtle metaphors using the well-known internet jargon. Considering the setting, it looks unrealistic that the movie makes almost no reference to the mobile usage of the internet (which is more integral to the internet industry then ever before) and makes no attempt to incorporate the same in the screenplay. Underlining the fact that the setting up of the plot in the Internet wars is just that, a set-up. Excusing the above fact, the story needed a really strong character to take it to the finish line and the script shows enough promise for the same but sadly that does not translate well enough to the screen.

Rhea Chakraborty’s second turn as an actress (after the enjoyable enough ride Mere Dad Ki Maruti) is convincing enough to showcase that she has the potential to get better and her performance here is no match-winner but not unbelievable either. She is likeable and has the spunk needed for the character. Supported by the debutant Raghav Juyal (of Dance India Dance fame) who shows that he should stick to dancing and Ali Fazal who is consistently average throughout the film. Swanand Kirkire as Sonali’s alcoholic father is quite outrageous and has a screen presence that lingers. He should look out for more roles as he certainly has the ability. Anupam Kher as the Ambani-esque head of the multinational giant Waghel, is repetitive and caricaturish bringing down the film. Faisal Rashid as the assistant to Waghel is believable while Smita Jaykar as Raghu’s mother also does an earnest job.

In the end, it’s a case of good intentions and a promising script being let down by the execution. In other words, Sonali Cable is largely both, off-line and off-length.

Hindi, Drama, Color