Producer: Meghna Gulzar
Director: Meghna Gulzar
Cast: Tabu, Sushmita Sen, Sanjay Suri, Palash Sen
Music: Anu Malik

Writer and director Meghna Gulzar is the daughter of acclaimed lyricist and playwright Gulzar. ‘Filhaal’ is the first film of Meghna where she calls the baton, produced by Jhamu Sughand. In brief the film is a bird’s eye view on relationships, love, friendship, marriage, life and many other aspect. The film also brings forth the theme of ‘surrogate motherhood’ but in a defacing manner.

Rewa (Tabu) is a warm, sensitive and emotional young girl. She is bond faithfully to the relationships of her dear ones. She loves her husband Dhruv (Sanjay Suri) and shares a cordial relationship with him. They have a warm and cherished relationship that intensifies as they look forward to have a child to complete their family.

Sia (Sushmita Sen) and Rewa have been best friends since childhood. She also holds a special position in Rewa’s life. They share a loyal, emotional and warm relation. They are such friends’ that Sia lives all of Rewa's turning points in life, with her. But both are very much alike and unlike as well. Rewa is introvert and of silent nature wanting to have a blissful life with a husband and children. Sia is lively and effervescent living life at the moment and enjoys herself and is ambitious and career oriented. Rewa wants to see Sia married to her beau Saahil (Palash Sen). Sia loves Saahil, but keeps postponing her marriage with him. She avoids marriage, as she is interested to establish her career, wants to become a photographer first as she feels that she might have to compromise her profession after marriage. Their lives get entangled at various levels due to a twist of fate.

With ‘Filhaal’ Meghna attempts a sensitive story of two friends. As a newcomer she needs to hone her skills. She handles the story very immaturely and the enterprise fails due to the lack of lilting points. The story lacks novelness and unprofessional treatment to a sensitive theme (surrogate motherhood) mars the fate of the project. The packaging has visual appeal but not the strength to keep you glued to the screen. Also the proceeding gets a bit confusing and the slow pace doesn’t help things much. The screenplay is a downer. You are unable to relate to the characters, let along feel emotional towards them.

Anu Maliik's music is good but in the post interval portions the songs acts as speed breakers. Manmohan Singh's cinematography is captivating. Dialogues are apt.

Actors Tabu, Sushmita Sen and Sanjay Suri do their part well but cannot lift the fragile script. Palash Sen looks better as a singer.

The film has no strength to live up to the expectations of the cinegoers. Also it can be neither categorized as an offbeat film nor a commercial one. To assume the target audience of the film is tough. Thus there is not much hope in the box office for the film.