Dear Zindagi Turns 10 on November 25, and Alia Bhatt's Quiet Film Still Holds Up

Illustration: AI-generated with Pollinations (FLUX), free to use

Dear Zindagi opened on November 25, 2016, which means it turns 10 this month. It is a small film by Bollywood standards. A young cinematographer named Kaira starts therapy with a counsellor played by Shah Rukh Khan, and it has aged better than most of the big releases from that year.

Photo: Elena Ternovaja, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Alia Bhatt plays Kaira, who is stuck between her family, her boyfriend and a job she keeps putting off. She carries the emotional work with a lot of restraint. The film does not ask you to cry, which is part of why it stayed with me.

Photo: Dani Charles, Silverscreen Media, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Shah Rukh Khan's Dr. Jehangir Khan is the reason many viewers came back. He is funny, sharp and very patient, and the scenes where he talks Kaira through her habits feel real. Gauri Shinde, who wrote and directed English Vinglish, keeps the story grounded in ordinary Mumbai spaces.

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The film also avoids many of the usual clichés about therapy. It does not turn mental health into a magic fix, and it shows that talking to someone can be slow and awkward. That honesty is what made it work for viewers who had never sat in a therapist's chair.

Photo: Elena Ternovaja, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Have you seen Dear Zindagi? I would be curious whether you think the second half lands, because I still feel the first half is the stronger one.