This is as far as a Sooraj Barjatia film can get. It also avoids the melodrama that these types of films tend to lapse into, though it can’t resist the temptation to stretch the length at least an hour longer than it should be.
Yet, how often do you see a road film about three old men and two old women whose lesson is that change is the only constant? Life is not a one-way street, is the surprising and refreshing message three friends Amit (Bachchan), Om (Kher) and Javed (Irani) learn from their bid to climb up to Everest Base Camp. You learn every step of the way, often looking back but sometimes looking forward.
Parents aren’t always right, children aren’t always wrong, marriages can require distance, and love can often surrender to earthly comforts.
This road trip from Delhi via Kathmandu, Kanpur, Lucknow and Gorakhpur has many life lessons. Neena Gupta as Sabina, Javed’s wife, and Sarika as Mala Trivedi, who travel with them complete the travel company.
Although Bachchan is the star, this time it’s not his job, the script keeps pushing him forward while his own character is content to be one of many. As the loving couple Javed and Sabina, Irani and Gupta have the film’s most likable moments, while Kher gets the biggest laughs as the friend.
However, the Everest trek is not dismissed as one, with some effort made real — down to the peeling skin and chapped lips, and the daily itinerary involved. There is a scene of true terror on a bridge across a stream that we may remember from other Everest films, although it lasts a bit longer.
Given the potential expansion of tourism to Everest, if the film is a hit, there is a lot of emphasis on safety, staying in proper medical health, and being careful about what can go wrong. But there are also wonderful, warm and small touches about how to do this, for people who are repeatedly told that life is over for them.
A bit short of several stretches towards the second half where the film falls into multiple man-made crises, and this Uunchai really would have been mission accomplished.