‘Before Life After Death’ Netflix Movie Review - Efforts Matter

The film starts by telling the audience “None of this happened in real but there’s truth in it”. The movie is based in Singapore and Gauri, a 20-year-old girl is seen leaving her home. Her stepmother asks her various questions but she doesn't respond. Gauri says that she’ll die but will never come back to this home. The father can be seen sitting on the couch and he doesn’t stop her. This indicates that this wasn’t her first time. Questions like why is she running away and what has the family done come to our mind. 

The film takes the audience to two months back where Radhika (a gynecologist and obstetrician) and her husband are talking about their daughter Rumi who committed suicide at the age of 17. Rumi had depression and her parents knew about her condition. The incident still lives fresh in Radhika’s mind and she isn’t the same now. 

Fate brings Radhika and Gauri together as the latter was pregnant and visited her clinic. Struggling to think about whether to keep the child or not, Gauri comes closer to the doctor. She leaves her home and starts to live in a shelter. Slowly, they form a close bond and start supporting each other. Gauri doesn’t get her abortion done and keeps the baby. When Radhika and Gauri first meet each other, you’d know that they were destined to meet as Radhika is someone who has lost her daughter and Gauri is a child who has never received parental support and love. The movie could’ve also been titled Filling the Gaps. 

The step taken by the writers to show the feelings of a neglected child and a family who has lost their child coming together was a sensitive matter and the way they’ve portrayed is nicely done. Things like these need to be carefully shown. Through the actors, we can feel every emotion a family undergoes. If we have to divide society into two parts then, Gauri’s and Radhika’s families would lie on the opposite part of the spectrum. One needed help and the other was there to provide it. It was as if both of them were trying to fill a void that was created by their family members.

After an hour into the film, you know how it's gonna end, and I was reluctant to watch the whole film as some things were being unnecessarily dragged. Namita Lal as Radhika was a powerful character and the way she expressed the pain of losing a child was appealing. Gauraangi Chopra as Gauri Singh represented the neglected children of the society. Not having her mom and her father always busy working, she wasn’t paid much attention. Hence, the child looked for love and when she found it, she wasn’t ready to give up on it.

Both Radhika and Gauri’s characters will teach the audience a lot of things. Gauri teaches us to never give up on things and to have a positive attitude. Radhika being a doctor and a mother who recently lost her child tells us how children never think once before leaving their parents. Her daughter Rumi was in depression and after she left, Radhika wasn’t herself till Gauri came into her life. 

The scene in which Radhika wakes up and goes to her husband saying “Wo chali gyi” repeatedly is heartbreaking. The pain of losing a child could be felt in that scene and the way Manav (her husband) was consoling her felt useless because she was constantly blaming herself.

It's very important in the art of filmmaking that you deliver your idea within a scheduled time. If your plot is very small and you make it into a film that’s more than two hours long (which happened in this case), it reduces the impact of the movie. The idea behind Before Life After Death was great, but the duration of the film acts against it. Had it been just 90 minutes long, the audience would’ve enjoyed it more. 

Final Score – [7/10]
Reviewed by - Riya Singh
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Publisher at Midgard Times