Shut Up Sona review: The documentary on Sona Mohapatra promotes an adamant woman-child without a reason

2.5/5

In her documentary, Shut Up Sona, her life, controversies, and what goes on behind the cameras are explored.

Sona Mohapatra is one of those women others might be proud to have in their life. She's not perfect, but she thinks about making the world a better place, at least for the underprivileged. Seeing that aspect, one would want this singer's documentary, Shut Up Sona, to open up meaningful discussions, right? Shut Up Sona does the exact opposite of that. Here, Sona talks without specifically making sense all the time and can be borderline offensive for trying to judge the people around her.

Shut Up Sona begins with her criticising the media and disrespecting the people who made an effort to attend her concert for an interview. The beginning is a perfect example of how journalists are often taken for granted by celebrities, including Sona Mohapatra. She is just another voice among the greats like Arijit Singh, Shreya Ghoshal, and the late KK.

Ram Sampath, who is married to Sona, appears in the documentary soon. The two, as expected, bond over music.

The documentary goes on at a slow pace and you tend to lose track because the mic is too far away from what the people are saying. This especially happens in one of Sona and Ram's intimate conversations.

Their relationship is explored in depth. Both have contrasting personalities and think differently, but still come together for each other at the end of the day.

Sona is known to call people out—sometimes correctly, other times falsely. While she started accusing the journalists early on, she correctly pointed out how someone who claims to be Asia's biggest festival barely promotes women. That, obviously, should not be the case, but for some reason, Sona is hooked on performing at this place, and so you also see a major bit of that in the documentary, even when you wouldn't fathom the whats and whys.

In this documentary, Sona talks about real issues—about how men always get preferential treatment over women. However, this topic has been said so many times that nothing makes Shut Up Sona special or a class apart. This time, it makes us want to say, "Shut Up, Sona," because we're done trying to listen to the same things and see an arrogant, adamant woman-child.

This singer challenges a long-held cultural belief. She even challenges who Hindus believe is God.

Since the story is about Sona, music plays an important role in this documentary, and it is good nonetheless. In fact, many-a-times, Sona tries to be poetic but doesn't always succeed.

As you would expect, the ending scene of this film is quite cliched. Sona has been fighting for a cause, and the end signifies she has achieved what she set out to achieve, which, we all know, is not the truth even today.

Even ardent Sona Mohapatra fans would understand that this documentary is almost forced down people's throats. Not that Sona does not have something to share, but in this nearly two-hour documentary, the main focus shifted only towards the end. Why the wait when Sona herself is someone who wants to see an immediate change?