Like the merchant’s servant who cannot escape his appointment with Death in Samarra, the protagonist of My Birthday Song is condemned to a fate he cannot shake off.
It all begins on the night of advertising filmmaker Rajiv’s 40th birthday. A woman (Nora Fatehi) catches his eye at the party, and since his wife is away, and he is something of a bedpost-hopper, Rajiv (Sanjay Suri) decides to try his luck. They both speak in accented English, since propositioning in Hindi films sounds so much better when not in the native tongue. However, for all the put-on poshness, the night ends badly.
When Rajiv wakes up in the morning, there are no traces of the previous night’s excesses. The incident repeats itself, until it is clear that wherever Rajiv turns, he will be unable to hide. He will get what is coming to him, since this movie views infidelity as a crime greater that murder.
Rajiv might be a minor Harvey Weinstein, but in the complete absence of character shading in the script by director Sameer Soni and his co-writer Vrushali Telang, the quantum of his crime is anybody’s guess. Sanjay Suri is in nearly every frame of the movie, but simply does not have the skills required for the part.
My Birthday Song has just about enough meat for a short fictional film, but even that would have had to have better writing and less amateurish performances to leave traces. Even the internet has higher standards these days.