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There is an old world charm about Notebook that we would not find in the love stories of today. A young man, teaching in a secluded and dilapidated school in the middle of nowhere, gradually falls in love with the girl who had taught the same clbad before him – through the daily scribbles of his diary aka notebook that she left behind in a dusty drawer.
This is a charming place in the Tinder and Twitter era, set against the backdrop of the pristine lakes of Kashmir, snow-capped peaks and fiery chestnuts. But is an unconventional romance told in a time-immobile format enough to hold the viewer's attention for nearly two hours? Not enough.
Adapted from the Thai film Journal of the Teacher Notebook Remains largely faithful to the original, while transposing history to Kashmir to provide a socio-political context fleshy to his two newbies.
Zaheer Iqbal plays Kabir, a former military, accused of failing to save a child from the blast of a landmine. Kabir, haunted by the demons of his past, chooses to hold a teaching position in a school located in the middle of a lake that has five students. Kabir finds his new job frustrating and his existence lonely and dismal. Until he went to the personal diary of Firdaus (Pranutan Bahl), where she had spread her loneliness, frustration and philosophy of life, while doing the same job a year ago. It is this notebook that becomes a lifeline for Kabir and he happens to become a better teacher – and a better person – thanks to Firdaus' handwritten reflections.
Notebook is an idea of a line that extends on a 112-minute film. Director Nitin Kakkar, who impressed his debut with the filmmaker Filmistaan a few years ago, is trying to reinforce the extremely thin principle by getting involved in the politics of the region – shouting "azaadi" makes the air, children are seen abandoning books against guns and natives are driven from their homes.
The main roles belong to both sides of Kashmir's socio-political division, adding an interesting context to the film. Firdaus is a Muslim, whose father had sacrificed everything to ensure the safety of his friend Pandit of Kashmir, who was Kabir's father. But the love story, the main theme of the film, does not have the tone and texture to engage audiences beyond a point.
The theme of love across different dimensions and calendars may recall one of Keanu Reeves-Sandra Bullock's 2006 films, The Lake House, but Notebook is largely too literal to have the same impact.
The unidimensional narrative means that the film tends to repeat itself after a while, especially when it comes to pieces where Kabir discovers Firdaus through the pages of his notebook.
Although Kakkar happily renounces clbadical tropes of romance – no singing and dancing routines here – Zaheer Iqbal's quavering show means he must often be cast as a "hero" . The young man has an absolutely useless sequence to show his "chops of action" and another where he burst into a template of the remixed version of the mission Mission Kashmir Bumro . Not to mention the bandwidth of Julius Packiam which unnecessarily amplifies the march and the conversation of Iqbal.
Pranutan Bahl – the granddaughter of the old Nutan actress – is doing much better, with the blessing of an impressive screen presence. The performance is a little raw, but Pranutan is very promising. The real stars come from the group of actors kneeling high – the most notable of them being Mir Mohammad Mehroos in Imran.
In the end, Kashmir is only doing very badly – masterfully filmed by Manoj Kumar Khatoi – who stays with you. The producer Salman Khan might be interested in marketing Notebook as a travelogue rather than a love story.
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