The Sky is Pink review: The art and artifice of ‘personal’

Toronto: How personal can art get? Director Shonali Bose’s The Sky is Pink, scheduled to have its world premiere at the 44th Toronto International Film Festival on September 13 in the Gala section, alongside several Oscar worthies from Hollywood, mines the real-life tragedy of a family to create a film which, at one level, tells a rather devastating yet life-affirming tale of coping with the impending death of a loved one, but at another raises troubling questions about creative license. The Sky is Pink, starring Priyanka Chopra, Farhan Akhtar and Zaira Wasim, is based on the life of the Chaudharys, Aditi and Niren, who lost two of their daughters to immune deficiency, or SCID, a rare genetic disorder in which the body doesn’t have the wherewithal to fight infections. Thus, a lot of time gets spent on Aditi and Niren’s cute romance, some silly marital fights, and later dramatic moments like Aisha’s prognosis, crucial phone calls, a happy family trip… Tiff’s website states that “with The Sky is Pink, Priyanka Chopra-Jonas brings together her personal passion and her megawatt stardom to power an inspiring, real-life tale with the emotional wallop of the best Bollywood has to offer.” That's marketing language. The real emotional walloping in The Sky is Pink comes not from its stars, but when, at the end of the film, we get to see the family photo album of the real Chaudhurys, short clips of Aisha as a toddler, at a Ted Talk, laughing, and with an oxygen cylinder connected through a pipe to her nose.