Notebook (2019 film)


Notebook is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language romantic drama film produced by Salman Khan under Salman Khan Films and Murad Khetani and Ashwin Varde under Cine1 Studios and directed by Nitin Kakkar. A remake of the 2014 Thai film The Teacher's Diary, it stars debutantes Zaheer Iqbal and Pranutan Bahl, daughter of actor Mohnish Bahl, in the lead roles, and tells the story of a young retired army officer who joins his father's school as a teacher to save it from closure, and falls in love with the previous teacher after reading through her memorabilia left behind in the drawers. The film was released on 29 March 2019 and received mixed response from critics. Commercially, the film could not perform well.

Plot

Captain Kabir Kaul, a young retired army officer, decides to teach in his late father's school, the Wular Public School as the school will be closed if there is no teacher to teach. At the school, he finds a diary left behind in the desk drawer by the previous teacher, Firdaus Quadri. Children start coming to school after learning that a new teacher has arrived. However, they disobey Kabir, leading him to think that he cannot teach, but after reading Firdaus's diary, he gains confidence and decides to try.
Kabir experiences a breakup with his girlfriend, who is having an affair and believes that Kabir is now unfit to marry her as he has left the army. He is heartbroken but takes solace in the schoolchildren and Firdaus's diary, writing comments in it. He learns about Imran, one of the schoolchildren, whose father, Yakub, wants him to help in the household rather than attending school. Using help from the diary, Kabir succeeds in bringing Imran back to school. He decides to burn Firdaus's diary after learning she is getting married, but retrieves it in a fit of epiphany.
On her wedding day, Firdaus finds out that her fiance was cheating on her and the other woman is carrying his child. She calls off the marriage and returns to Wular Public School. The children are overjoyed to have her back though Kabir is gone. She finds her diary in the same drawer she had left it in a year before and reads Kabir's comments. He had written that he was in love with the writer and had learned valuable lessons from her diary. Curious, Firdaus asks the principal about Kabir the same way he had asked about her. The principal tells her that he has gone to take a teaching course.
One day, Firdaus confronts Yakub, who wants to take Imran back. Imran sees Kabir and runs to him, saying he doesn't want to leave the school. Yakub threatens Kabir with a gun and Imran, realizing Yakub might kill Kabir, takes the gun to shoot his father. Kabir stops him, asking him not to do so. Yakub realizes his mistake and lets go of the matter. At the end, it is shown that Firdaus sent the children back home so that she can talk and spend time with Kabir with whom she has fallen in love and got married recently.

Cast

Salman Khan unveiled the first poster of film on Valentine's Day. The official trailer of the film was released on 22 February 2019. A special screening of the film was held for Bollywood stars and family on 28 March 2019. The makers chose not to release the film in Pakistan due to the 2019 Pulwama attack.

Home video

The film was made available as VOD on Prime Video in June 2019.

Reception

Notebook is a wonderful movie which bravely broke the love at first sight stereotype of cinema. The chemistry between the lead pair is more internal and the movie is much more than just a love story. The sub plots which talk about the children of Kashmir and concepts of letting go is smoothly weaved into the narrative. Its unexpected uniqueness and different perspective was not appreciated by the Indian audience since they are used to spicy masalas and lame dialogues rather than deeper aspects. The critics also did not rate the movie well and probably they too had a view similiar to the audience. The plot was a bit extended but the scene in the end showing the lead pair was subtle and beautiful unlike in most movies where the pair ends up marrying or living happily ever after. This movie is not recommended to watch if you love strong visible chemistry and over the top dramas.

Soundtrack

The music and background score of the film is composed by Vishal Mishra while the lyrics are penned by Manoj Muntashir, Kaushal Kishore, Akshay Tripathi, Abhendra Upadhyay and Vishal Mishra. The song "Bhumro" is a recreation of "Bhumro" from the film "Mission Kashmir".