Waiting Hindi DVD


Starring: Naseeruddin Shah, Kalki Koechlin


Shiv Kumar (Naseeruddin Shah), an elderly psychology professor, arrives at a hotel in Kochi to visit his comatose wife Pankaja (Suhasini Maniratnam). Tara Kapoor Desphande (Kalki Koechlin), a young advertising agent, arrives at the same hospital during the night after being delivered the news of a car accident, which involved her husband, Rajat Deshpande (Arjun Mathur). She is consoled by Rajat's eccentric co-worker Girish (Rajeev Ravindranathan), but she dismisses him abruptly. Tara is deeply disturbed to see Rajat breathing on a ventilator, and leaves immediately.

While at the waiting lounge Tara approaches Shiv believing him to be a doctor and asks for his advice. He reveals that his wife had a stroke eighth months ago while he was out watching a cricket match. The two bond over their similar situation. Girish later drops Tara and gives her Rajat's bag. Tara finds his watch in it and puts in on. The next day Tara is angered on reading an intimate message on Rajat's phone from a colleague Sheetal, who is later revealed to be a man. Shiv witnesses the whole misunderstanding and the two share a light moment. He later visits Tara in her hotel room where Tara lashes out about her friends and followers on social media for having abandoned. Tara commends Shiv for his composure and calm nature, which leads him explaining the five stages of grief to her.

Tara finds her resort in Shiv, her wiser more experienced counterpart. The two start spending most of their spare time together despite being completely opposite in nature, simultaneously coping up with their respective grief. Shiv takes Tara to the temple as a part of his coping mechanism and she takes him lingerie shopping as a part of hers. Dr. Nirupam Malhotra (Rajat Kapoor), Rajat's doctor tells Tara that he has a hematoma in his brain and a surgery might help him recover, but it carries the risk of partial paralysis. Tara is torn between making a decision as she believes Rajat wouldn't want to live life being paralysed, and seeks advice from Shiv who is already angered by Dr. Malhotra's negative approach towards Pankaja's case. He dismisses him as a pawn of the hospital board and the insurance companies who care just about the money and not the patients. The two get into a heated argument and Shiv angrily lashes out at Tara for not giving Rajat a chance at life with Tara calling herself a realist, dismisses Shiv for being selfish and making his wife go through all the pain for his own sake.

Tara's best friend Ishita (Ratnabali Bhattacharjee) arrives at Kochi and advises her to start chanting prayers, and to inform Rajat's estranged parents. Tara despite being an atheist chants Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō, when she is alone with Rajat. Shiv desperately attempts to convince Dr. Malhotra to perform a spinal decompression on his wife but he disregards Shiv's research and refuses to proceed with surgery. Tara discusses surgery with Ishita and decides to not go ahead with it which further angers Dr. Malhotra. Ishita leaves to aid her ailing son, and Tara realises that she is no longer her priority as was the case prior to her marriage. Shiv and Tara finally make up and later the night smoke a joint and later dance together back at Shiv's house, much to the amusement of his neighbours. They later get upset thinking about their spouses and discuss love and what it meant to them, before falling asleep in the living room.

The next morning, Tara leaves early and later decides to inform Rajat's mother. Girish brings Tara the required insurance papers and she thanks him saying that he was always their for her and she never acknowledged it. She then decides to go ahead with the surgery after all. Rajat is taken to surgery and Tara holds his hand up until they arrive at the OR. Shiv, on the other hand decides to take Panakja off the ventilator and let his wife make the final call, Panakja tries to breathe on her own as the viewers are treated with the flashbacks of the heydays of both the couples. Tara takes a seat at the waiting lounge, and is joined by Shiv who sits next to her as the camera pans out.