Rabia and Olivia : Love is the best medicine!
Human emotions are similar irrespective caste, creed and place. The world is separated by boundaries but love has no boundaries. Love has always been considered as the main emotion which guides the lives of people. Apart from love between lovers, friends’ love, parent-child love too has importance in life. In fact in some of the chronic diseases love plays an important role in the recovery of a patient. Taking this philosophy further, a movie Rabia and Olivia, focuses on the love between a strange but loving person and a motherless girl. Director Shadab Khan has handled this delicate subject with kid-gloves and without brouhaha has dished out an entertaining film.
Rabia Sayed (Nayab Khan) has recently migrated to Canada to seek employment which’ll assist the financial conditions of her family in India. But since she has entered the country illegally she has applied for a refugee status. She is unable to procure job because her papers are not complete and hence no one wants to hire her illegally. Her family friends Naser bhai (Afroz Khan) and Ishaan (Shadab Khan) are trying to find her a job. Naser’s friend Mark is a single parent of a young 9 year old girl Olivia. Olivia’s mother has died and since then she has become a difficult child. In fact she is under medical treatment and her aggressive nature has been a problem for all. The school teachers do not want her to attend school as she becomes violent with other students. Four nannies have given up on her. To help Rabia, Naser recommends her name to Mark and gets her a job as Nanny. Rabia is patient with Olivia (Helena Prinzen Klague) and soon wins her confidence and Olivia and Rabia become inseparable. In good faith Rabia stops Olivia’s medication thinking love is more effective than medicines but that doesn’t go well with Mark. He sues her for child negligence and is arrested. What transpires later and in between forms the crux of the story.
The story is novel and the screenplay is well etched out. The director has kept the narration simple and that’s a plus for the film. A lot of issues like illegal immigration, racism etc are brushed upon subtly. Difficult Olivia immediately getting along with Rabia or a father leaving his sick daughter for a month in the hands of a new nanny who has come just a few days back, are questionable. Music is very good especially the song, ‘Hey Zingagi….’ stands out for it’s lyrics and tune. Cinematography is excellent and so are production values. Nayab Khan has done a brilliant job as Rabia and she scores with her emotional as well as cheerful scenes with Olivia. Child actor Helena Prinzen Klague wins hearts as Olivia. Sheeba Chaddha as Rabia’s mother adds strength to the emotional quotient of the movie. Afroz Khan and Shadab Khan too perform well.
Rabia and Olivia is a splendid movie and connoisseurs of good movies will like it immensely.
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Keerti Kadam.