October: A Movie About a Journey Through Unconditional Love

When the month of October arrives, I’m reminded of the film ‘October.’

A heartbreaking tale of unconditional love. The story of Dan and Shiuli.

I sit down to watch it once more, and when the credits roll, I get up with an empty heart.

Everything around me feels damp, as if it’s inviting tears. There’s a sense of sorrow that fills the air.

Don’t we all know people like that?

Unprofessional, whimsical, annoying.

Dan is like that. It’s not that he doesn’t want to work. He wants to work, but somehow, things don’t fall into place for him.

Nothing goes his way, and he is frustrated.

His complaints extend to everything and everyone in the world — whether it’s the work, a bottle, a glass, or even an underwear.

Dan works at a large hotel called Radisson Blu as an intern in the hotel management department. He has a few colleagues, but he is only close to two of them.

Shiuli, however, is not part of this group of friends. His relationship with her is not significant enough to mention.

Let me describe a small scene to illustrate Dan’s nature. In the hotel, people who slack off at work are usually given random tasks as punishment. Dan, for instance, can be seen swatting mosquitoes with a bat, working in the laundry, or doing cleaning duties from time to time — cleaning rooms, bathrooms.

Dan works like that. When he’s working in a room with no one around, he sits on the sofa with his feet up, eating an apple. When he leaves, he smears dirt on the white bedsheet with his feet.

This isn’t a one-time thing.

It’s been going on for the past four or five months. White sheets have been getting stained for months, but the manager has no clue who’s responsible.

It’s Dan. Why? Why does Dan do such things?

The answer is, he’s frustrated. Not with anyone specific, but with the entire world. Nothing seems to go right for him.

On the other hand, there’s Shiuli. Despite being a junior, she works with Dan and others because of her intelligence, her ability to handle situations excellently, and her sense of responsibility. She is hardworking and dedicated.

This amazing girl, during a party one night, tries to sit on the railing on the third floor of the hotel, but her hand slips, and she falls.

Before she falls, she asks, “Where’s Dan?”

If we divide the movie into parts, this would be the end of the first part.

The second part begins with Shiuli in a coma. Dan goes to see her on the first day, counting how many tubes are attached to her body. He notices blood in one of the tubes and thinks it wasn’t inserted properly.

Dan returns the next day. And the day after that. He stands behind Shiuli’s mother, sister, and brother — always present, but without any reason.

He isn’t her boyfriend, relative, or even her friend. He’s just someone who stands by. When the family is crushed under the burden of increasing hospital bills, and an uncle advises Shiuli’s mother to be practical, Dan is the first to say, “How many years has she lived? How little time are we giving her to choose between life and death?”

Dan still doesn’t know that Shiuli’s last words before she fell into a coma were about him. Shiuli had asked, “Where’s Dan?” He finds out much later. When he does, he is shocked and somewhat disappointed in his friends for forgetting to tell him such a crucial detail. Could they really be so thoughtless?

Now, how will Dan tell Shiuli where he was that night?

The third part of the movie begins with Dan spending nights at the hospital. Why? For no reason.

He sleeps on stretchers, benches, argues with the security guard at night, and asks random questions at the reception during the day — like, which doctor to see for stomach pain, or what TTS is.

We start to realize that Dan has a deep connection with Shiuli. Maybe Shiuli felt something for the whimsical Dan.

Who knows?

Even though Dan’s friends insist that Shiuli didn’t have feelings for him and only asked “Where’s Dan?” casually, Dan keeps staying at the hospital.

At some point, Dan brings Shiuli’s dust-covered car from the hotel to her house and tells her mother about a time when his arm was broken and took a long time to heal, but eventually, it did. Shiuli’s head will heal too, he says.

‘October’ is a film about unconditional love. But Dan shows us that even in such a selfless act, his desire is hidden. His intense efforts to keep Shiuli alive come from a simple reason — when Shiuli recovers, Dan wants to ask her why she had asked about him that night. Did she ever love him? Did she have feelings for him?

The fourth part of the movie. Dan is fully a hospital boy. When bed number twenty-eight is called, he raises his hand. He sleeps in the waiting room. Eats at the shop outside. Wanders around the ICU. Annoys the nurse.

He checks Shiuli’s urine bag every day, and if there’s more urine, he gets happy, making his own assumption that no matter what’s going on in the brain, the kidneys aren’t affected, and that’s a relief.

Shiuli’s family sits together again. As usual, the uncle is practical. They are spending a lot of money, and what’s the point if even after all this expense, Shiuli won’t recognize her mother or her sister? With an almost irrelevant sense of entitlement, Dan inserts himself into the family meeting once again, just as he always does.

‘So what if Shiuli can’t recognize you? You can still recognize her.’

Once again, Dan wins. The family holds onto hope. Dan’s internship takes a back seat. He focuses on the hospital. Which worker is slacking, who comes for cleaning and stands beside a bed for too long, what they are thinking while standing — it all catches his eye.

Shiuli’s condition doesn’t improve. It gets worse. The doctor loses hope too. The family sits down again. The practical uncle says, ‘Pull the plug,’ the mother is speechless, devastated. The sister is disheartened. The brother is silent.

Only Dan, looking down, says, ‘Why should anyone else decide whether Shiuli wants to live or not? She will decide. Maybe she wants to live. Why would she want to die on her own?’

The family once again holds onto hope. Dan wins for the third time. Toward the end of the movie, Shiuli’s mother tells Dan’s mother, ‘Dan is like a pillar. Whenever we were falling apart, he stood firm. Why? I don’t know.’

The fifth part of the movie.

One night, Dan sees Shiuli flowers on top of a car, and he picks them up. Because he knows Shiuli loves Shiuli flowers. He takes the flowers to the hospital. This is around the middle of the movie. From what we’ve learned about Dan so far, he didn’t do this with any particular intention. He just wanted to see Shiuli, wanted to go to the hospital, and needed an excuse. The excuse was the flowers. So, he took them.

Before this, he had rushed to the hospital late at night just to answer the question, ‘Where is Dan?’ He had stood by Shiuli’s bed and said, ‘You wanted to know where I was that night. Actually, I wasn’t there that night.’

That’s the answer. Incoherent. He had rushed there at night just to say that.

We realize that Dan has essentially stepped into an invisible circle. That circle is drawn around Shiuli’s bed. Did Shiuli feel the boundary of that circle too?

Because it’s the scent of Dan’s Shiuli flowers, placed by the bed, that makes her respond for the first time. Even though the doctor calls it a common occurrence, the family’s hope widens a little. Half of the movie is over.

In the rest of the movie, Dan becomes even closer. Those tubes, those plugs, the sound of the heartbeat monitor, picking up Shiuli flowers every day, spreading them near her head.

He talks every day to someone who can’t speak, not even knowing if she’s listening. Shiuli has to survive. Breaking down is not an option. Dan keeps a close eye to ensure Shiuli’s uncle doesn’t sit by the bed near the plug. If he sits there, who knows when he might pull the plug.

The nurse giggles. Maybe she wonders, was there ever really any relationship between them? Why is this young man dedicating every moment of his life to this young woman?

Shiuli opens her previously closed eyes after a long time. Her pupils slowly move.

Shiuli’s physical condition improves significantly, as they say. And Dan cries for the first time.

Standing on one side of a glass window. On the other side is a cloudy sky. Dan looks far away and cries. Shiuli is trying to survive. Dan is finally proven right. After all the money spent, the practical world, the in-between time of pulling the plug or keeping it plugged in, Dan wins in the end.

Though it’s unclear why he’s crying. Perhaps he sensed helplessness in the movement of Shiuli’s pupils.

A wonderful person who used to speak suddenly started communicating only by moving her pupils. How cruel nature can be.

Or maybe it’s tears of joy. The joy of winning. We don’t know. There are many things we don’t know about the movie October.

We don’t know why, when Shiuli was asked, “Is your name Shiuli?” Shiuli responded. “Do you know Kaveri?” Shiuli responded. “Do you know Kunal?” Shiuli responded. But when asked, “Do you know Dan?” Why didn’t Shiuli respond? We don’t know.

But Dan knows. When, in a very private moment, Dan quietly asked Shiuli, “Do you know Dan?” Shiuli responded. Dan then says, “I know why you didn’t respond in front of everyone that day.” What Dan knows, we do not.

Later on, Shiuli’s condition improves.

She can breathe on her own and consume small amounts of liquid. She’s moved from the ICU to a cabin. In the cabin, where Shiuli is placed, pictures of all her family members are hung — her mother, brother, sister, and herself — everyone except Dan. Dan himself brings a picture of him and attaches it to a corner of those photos.

This young man, for some strange reason, is trying to become part of an almost unfamiliar family, standing behind them all the time, sitting beside them, watching over Shiuli in turns, and even sleeping in the cabin.

As the movie nears its end, Dan gets expelled from the hotel due to his rudeness. Dan’s mother comes to visit him. She listens to the story of the last ten months. Her son’s hollow, black circles under his eyes don’t escape her notice. She goes to see Shiuli. Shiuli’s mother and Dan’s mother sit together in a room. That scene is heartbreaking.

One mother has already half-lost her daughter, and the other mother is slowly losing her son for that daughter. The son hasn’t been home once in the last ten months.

Shiuli’s mother realizes how selfish she’s been for her daughter. Dan has a life of his own too. Why is he spending that life behind this family? Shiuli’s mother requests Dan to focus on his own life. Dan leaves, walking quietly away just as he had come.

Dan gets busy with a distant hotel, and works with focus. But in between his work, a lonely Dan stands among trees, or near flowing water over rocks, empty.

After spending many days there, one day, Dan inquires about Shiuli. He learns that since Dan left, Shiuli’s condition has worsened. She is resisting everything, refusing to eat, screaming, moving her hands around, and has been taken to the ICU a couple of times. Dan spends sleepless nights.

The next day, he goes straight to the hospital and tells Shiuli, “Sorry, I won’t go anywhere anymore.”

The second-to-last part of the movie. My absolute favorite part. Shiuli is taken home from the hospital. She can move her head on her own. Perhaps, after a few months, she’ll be able to speak clearly. Dan starts coming home daily and takes Shiuli out for walks.

On one such day, Shiuli is sitting in a field in a wheelchair. Dan sits beside her and asks, “Shiuli, why did you ask that day, ‘Where is Dan?’” Shiuli tries to say something in response. We hold our breath.

We want to hear what Shiuli says. From the beginning, we’ve assumed this story revolving around an unconditional love story is conditional from Dan’s perspective. We know Dan desperately wants Shiuli to live because he has an amazing understanding with her.

When that question is asked, a Cold War ensues between us and Dan. We want Shiuli to say something, and Dan to listen with interest. Whether he finds joy or disappointment, something should happen. Then, we will win.

And for the fourth and last time, Dan wins again. Because when Shiuli tries to say something, Dan doesn’t try to listen. He actually has no interest in knowing anymore.

There was a time when he did, but not now. That question no longer holds any importance for him. There’s no longer any desire to know the answer. We lose. We feel an immense sadness.

Dan loved Shiuli a lot. Whether Shiuli ever loved him back doesn’t really matter.

The final part of the movie.

Shiuli passes away.

Dan, with quiet footsteps, enters the house, filled with solitude and grief, and sits by Shiuli’s bed, looking out the window. Beyond the window, there’s light. Tears fill Dan’s eyes. The movie could have ended there. But the residue remains.

Many years after Shiuli’s death, when Dan is busy working hard and responsibly after completing his diploma, Shiuli’s mother informs him that they are leaving the house.

She can’t bear to leave behind the Shiuli tree that Shiuli loved so much. Dan then tells her that he will take the tree with him. A few days later, Dan comes and uproots the tree, taking it along with him. The movie ends.

October was written by Juhi Chaturvedi, though the idea came from the director, Shoojit Sircar. He had asked Juhi, “Can you write such a story? One that is deeply unconditional, not typical, poetic, the purest form of a story. A relationship so inexplicable that even the people in it can’t answer what it really is.” And then Juhi wrote the film.

October is a story of a relationship that even Dan himself couldn’t name.

Every time he was asked, “Who is Shiuli to you?” he remained silent. Yet, for Shiuli, he had to quit multiple jobs, pay compensation of several lakhs, sacrifice countless sleepless nights, and half of his career.

Shiuli is a flower. It blooms in October, with a very short lifespan. It blooms at night and falls to the ground by dawn. Some pick it up, take in its fragrance, love it, and remember it.

At the beginning of the movie, Dan had discarded that flower. By the end, he uprooted an entire tree and took it with him. October taught us how to love. Unconditionally, intensely, without any reason, without any force. October feels like a journey to me. Dan’s journey.

“Where is Dan?” may seem like just a question, but it’s not. From a metaphorical perspective, Dan is a lost young man, unable to find himself anywhere. By chasing that question, Dan finds himself. Yet, the person who asked him the question is never told that Dan has finally found himself.

Dan matures from a whimsical young man sitting on a sofa with his legs up, eating an apple, and getting irritated by every person and object around him, to a mature man sitting by a window, eyes full of tears. October is the story of that journey. October is an unspoken love.

October is an art. A pure film.

October is a masterclass for film students. This simple, quiet love story can teach you how a character we barely know can slowly become a part of us, how someone becomes part of an unfamiliar family, and how tears well up naturally in a character’s eyes without any dramatic tension or suspense.

All the cast acted really well, and Varun Dhawan did an exceptional job portraying Dan. Even though people often think he can’t act, I suggest they watch his best movies: October, Badlapur, and Sui Dhaga.

Every scene in October is so beautiful. You can’t learn what you can from reading a thousand pages about character development as you can from watching the sequences in October.

Every October, I rewatch this movie once. I love it.

October is not a story about falling in love at first sight. It’s not a story of touches, kisses, or setting up a home under one roof. It’s not a story of separation. It’s a story soaked in love, yet not the love story we recognize. So what is it? Shoojit had described October in one sentence, and it’s true.

“October is not a love story; it’s a story about love.”

I translated this review of the movie October from a Bengali review written by Shakhawat Hossen. This is one of my favorite movies, and the Shiuli flower is my favorite too. I watch this movie every October, and I often rewatch some scenes.

October is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language drama film directed by Shoojit Sircar, and produced by Ronnie Lahiri and Sheel Kumar under their Rising Sun Films banner.

The film stars Banita Sandhu, Gitanjali Rao, and Varun Dhawan. Written by Juhi Chaturvedi and shot by Avik Mukhopadhyay, the film follows the life of a hotel-management intern who takes care of his comatose fellow intern in an unconditional and unconventional manner.

The beautiful soundtrack is composed by Shantanu Moitra, Abhishek Arora, and my favorite, Anupam Roy. You can watch this movie on Amazon Prime.

Thanks for reading this article. 💚

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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