Review of Indian Movie: Notebook: Review written by Vijay Bhatt for Blog posting Sept 21 2019.

 (Please note that there is also a Hollywood movie with similar name 'The Notebook')
Notebook is produced by Salman Khan Films and is directed by Nitin Kakkar after his much applauded directorial debutant film Filmistaan.The film  marks the debut of Pratunan (as Firdous), daughter of actor Mohnish Bahl and granddaughter of yesteryear actor Nutan,  and  launch of Salman Khan's childhood friend's son Zaheer Iqba (as Kabir) in lead roles.

This movie is an adaptation of an acclaimed  Thai film – The Teacher’s Diary released in 2014.

The protagonist Kabir takes a job after his army service at a school in rural isolated area of Kashmir where there was very little population, only seven kids-students, and not enough school related facilities and the only way of transportation is small boats.Kabir accidentally finds a notebook/ diary in a drawer, left by the previous female teacher, Firdaus(Pratunan).  He starts reading her diary and evolves in his situation. He gets drawn towards her and falls in love with her even without meeting her. The story evolves very slow and finally both Firdous and Kabir meet at the time of climax. The movie  leaves us with the imagination that their chemistry must be romantic, though witnessed few glimpses of it.

The director of the film and the screenplay writers who adopted this story from the  Thai film, could have done a better justice to such an extraordinary and original plot. Unfortunately both fell little short!. It gave me a feeling like I had an appetite for a good gourmet cuisine and I got to eat very delicious finger food appetizer and am told that my dinner is  over..!

If I have to rank, I would rank the Thai film’s plot for its originality as the best. Second best is the cinematography by ManojKumar Khatoi,who used the beautiful backdrop of Kashmir in a very serene and spectacular way without the stereotype terrorism visual narration. Next, are the kids and the lead role actors. The music could have been better to enhance the effect. Overall 5/10.Review of Indian Movie: Notebook: Review written by Vijay Bhatt for Blog posting Sept 21 2019.