(spoiler free)
After his father has a heart attack at work, twenty-four year old student Raju, played by Moin Khan, is forced to fill in for him while he recovers. His father worked as a lift operator in an apartment complex, a job that Raju had always looked down on and been embarrassed by. While filling in for his father Raju becomes close with the owner of the building, Maureen D’Souza who helps him with his studies for his engineering exams.
The Lift Boy has its heart firmly in the right place, endeavouring to correct the snobbery that Raju has towards his father’s job as a lift operator and his mother’s as a house maid. It does this by placing Raju into the very occupation that he’s been ashamed of his father having for his whole life. There was definite potential humour in this scenario, and whilst attempts are made the film never succeeds at effectively adding any comedy into this story. Instead the narrative comes across as rather one note and as a result becomes a relentless viewing experience for the audience. This isn’t helped by the overly sentimental score that is used throughout the film. Despite the narrative’s literal moving between levels due to much of the film taking place in an elevator, the use of this score prevents it from creating any variation in emotional levels.
The performances are fine, leading man Khan shows promise but he would no doubt fare better with stronger material to work with. The same can be said for the remainder of the cast, they do their best but when working with such an average screenplay only so much can be expected. The main focus of the narrative here just isn’t engaging enough to sustain viewers attention for the runtime, which is at least twenty minutes too long. Beyond the initial attitude adjustment to his parents’ jobs the majority of the film focuses on Raju’s studies and watching a film about someone revising for an exam is as much fun as, well, revising for an exam. Thankfully, the end of the film offers something somewhat more engaging due to its emotional tone, even if it does feel rather sudden. This touching finale is a good way to end the film and may somewhat persuade audiences to think they had a better time watching than the film they really did.
However, in all honesty it would be more entertaining to actually be stuck in an elevator than to watch The Lift Boy. Despite the best efforts of the cast the unengaging and one dimensional narrative simply fail to get this film to the top floor. Take the stairs instead.
Written by Hamish Calvert
★★
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