Shook: A Writer in the City Faces a Family Crisis and Host of Choices

By Karen Gordon

Rating: B

Toronto documentary filmmaker Amar Wala mines his own life in his feature film debut, Shook.

Ashish (Saamer Usmani) is at a point in his life where things should be coming together. His gang of friends are finding their way into the work world. One of them is beginning his medical residency. But Ash has picked a tougher road. He’s a writer and as an indication of talent, he has an agent who is trying to sell his first novel.

Publishers are welcoming, but no one is biting. And some of the responses are positive but want to stereotype him.

In the meantime, he’s living with his mother, Nisha (Pamela Sinha) in her condo and feeling unsettled. His parents have recently split, and he’s avoiding his father, Vijay (Bernard White) who keeps calling and texting and wanting to meet. Ash is an adult but seems really affected by his parents’ split.

Ash goes into a local coffee shop one day and the barista Claire (Amy Forsyth) flirts with him. Ash is a bit confused at why she’s asking for his name to put on the cup, and so she has to spell it out for him. It’s a meet-cute for sure, and they go for coffee, and start to see each other.

Ash is a bit buttoned up. Claire is both free spirited and grounded. She knows what she wants and where she’s headed, which includes moving to Montreal at the end of the summer to go to Concordia University. But there is chemistry, and the relationship starts to progress.

In the meantime, Ash’s father finally gets a face-to-face with his son and breaks the news that he has Parkinson’s disease.

All of this gives Ash some focus. He stops avoiding his dad and goes to medical appointments with him. He lobbies his mother to let her soon-to-be ex husband to move into her obviously too small condo, so they can take care of him as a family.

Director Wala does some really nice things with Shook. He keeps things very compact in terms of the story. There are no real deus ex machina moments that force a drama into the film, which keeps it honest. Ash doesn’t have a gigantic revelation at any point that turns his life around. It all feels natural and charming.

And he’s helped along by a very strong lead cast, who add complexity to the characters, in particular Usmani, who gives Ash an internal life.

There’s real chemistry between his character and Claire, and we can see how being with her would be good for him. But pursing that option would mean moving to Montreal. And that would mean leaving his family and his father, now a bachelor, to fend for himself.

However, there isn’t quite enough insight into what’s driving Ash. To be fair, that reflects where Ash is. He’s s either on the brink of a career as a writer, or the brink of having to figure out a Plan B. Circumstances are leading him, holding him in place.

Wala doesn’t go deep enough, and the film stays on the surface. At the same time, the characters stick with you, enough to make us want to know what happens next for Ash and Claire.

Shook is about a character, a Canadian, who happens to be the son of Indian immigrants. And so, the film touches on being brown in Canada with humour.

Rather than say his real name, Ash gives a “Canadian” name when he goes to get coffee. Some publishers think he should lean more into the “exotic” nature of his heritage. He notes that East Toronto, a.k.a. Scarborough, is home to immigrants, as is true of the east end of a lot of major cities.

But in all ways, he’s very Canadian. And another lovely thing about the film is that Toronto doesn’t stand in for anything. Wala lets us know where this is set. Subway stops, favourite places to eat. Toronto gets to play Toronto.

Shook. Written by Amar Wala and Adnan Khan. Directed by Amar Wala. Starring Saamer Usmani, Amy Forsyth, Pamela Sinha, and Bernard White. In theatres now.