The Signature Review: Proves Why Originals are Usually Better

A remake of the 2013 National Award-winning movie Anumati, this Hindi adaptation follows Arvind, a retired man, who finds himself in a difficult situation when his wife suddenly falls sick and is admitted to the hospital. Desperate to save her life, he does whatever he can to gather the funds for her hospital stay but finds himself facing one difficult task after another. However, when he suddenly comes across his old friend Ambika, things take a turn.

The film has a runtime of 95 minutes.

The Signature Review

If you’ve ever watched Baghban with your family you will know the visceral awkwardness that you will feel as Amitabh Bachchan’s Raj Malhotra makes one odd decision after another to make his kids feel extremely guilty for living their lives. The Signature, a remake of Ahire’s 2013 Marathi movie, is something like that. The film tries to portray a compassionate image of Arvind’s desperation to keep his wife alive and is a critique of the healthcare industry but turns into a baffling watch, especially in 2024. I firstly wondered what the point was of remaking this movie, considering actors Vikram Gokhale and Reema Lagoo already left us feeling some sort of way in the original. Kher is great in the movie, but his chemistry with Mahima Chaudhry is a bit confusing and I couldn’t help but wonder how these two were in the same educational institution at any point considering the clear age difference.

The movie constantly tries to make us feel bad for Arvind’s situation, which is a ground reality for many people in the poorer sections of society. And you do feel sympathetic for him until you realise that he is an educated man who somehow doesn’t have medical insurance but doesn’t hold back from harassing people while begging them to get money. He apparently has no idea about his brother’s struggles and neither does he know whether or not they have any kind of insurance, but somehow feels entitled to getting money now that his back is against the wall. And, sure, I get it – desperate times can be challenging for everyone. But it’s a weird choice to make, considering the random person in the street doesn’t owe you any money.

It’s these little things that are really grating to watch. You expect this from people who don’t know any better. But you expect more from people who are seemingly educated. The storyline, thus, feels a bit forced and desperate, trying its best to make us feel sympathetic for Arvind. It works to an extent because Kher is just so raw in his portrayal of a desperate husband who loves his wife. But it somehow misses the simplicity of the original. It also doesn’t help that the supporting actors other than Neena Kulkarni, Annu Kapoor and Ranvir Shorey are absolutely disappointing and stick out like a sore thumb.

I feel like that also becomes more apparent once Mahima Chaudhry comes to the scene. Her introduction adds a layer to the story and lightens it a bit, with things rapidly going well afterwards. However, Chaudhry doesn’t have the charm that Lagoo in the original had and it misses the mark by quite a bit. I also felt that the dubbing was to be blamed here, and she does feel a little out of place in general.

However, the movie does bring forth some interesting and important topics of discussion. Medical insurance aside, the cost of keeping loved ones alive and the toll it takes on the family is definitely a sad reality for many. It goes without saying that there should be more help out there in the world for struggling families who want to keep their relatives alive. Plus, the movie also discusses how hospitals misuse this desperation of patients’ families and try to extract as much money as they can. All of that is well and good, but again, all of these things feel like the movie is trying to tick some boxes instead of genuinely trying to bring the pain of being middle-class with a family member in need of urgent care.

Final Thoughts

It’s not like The Signature doesn’t leave an impression, it does. Anupam Kher does a great job and brings forth the heartbreak of losing one’s spouse with utmost sincerity. Sometimes he might even move you to tears. But there are some moments in the movie that are just so infuriatingly obtuse that you wish that the film was tweaked for 2024. If anything, it would’ve added a new spin to the old tale. Plus, with Reema Lagoo to replace in the remake, one can’t help but see the missing pieces in Mahima Chaudhry’s character and performance which doesn’t bring out the hopefulness and the charm that one might feel when they see the original.

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