Helicopter Eela(2018)

Plot Summary

• Eela Raiturkar (Kajol) is an aspiring playback singer and single mother. She has given up all her dreams to raise her only son. But now her baby son 'Vivan' (Riddhi Sen) is all grown up and being a typical young millennial, doesn't want his mother's life to revolve around him. But being an overprotective mother, Eela has other ideas and joins her son's college to spend more time with him. Eela runs a home cooked food and Tiffin delivery business.Back in the day in 1994, Eela was a famous model and dated Arun Raiturkar (Tota Roy Chowdhury), but she always aspired to be a singer. Arun helps her gets small breaks in the music industry (singing ad jingles) and Eela quickly wins over everyone with her infectious personality. Her work is impressive and gradually she starts getting callbacks. Eela is even open to singing as a dummy singer, as she treats every job as an opportunity to showcase her talent. She meets stalwarts like Baba Sehgal and Mahesh Bhatt and wins them over. Anu Malik decides to record a remix with Eela. She also receives an invite to the MTV India launch party. Mahesh Bhatt walks into one of Eela's recording sessions and loves her voice. When she was recording for a career-breaking song for a Mahesh Bhatt project, the project gets canceled indefinitely as Mahesh gets extortion calls from the underworld. As a result, Mahesh stops all his projects and goes underground for a few months. Eventually Eela proposes to Arun for marriage. Vivan is born and is soon a toddler.When Vivan is still a toddler, a close relative in Arun's family passes away from a heart attack. Arun gets an idea in his head, from Eela, that all males in his family die between 35 - 40 years of age. Even his own father and grandfather died in the same age bracket, although his father died in an accident (when a ball stuck him in a cricket stadium). The idea becomes so big that he divorces Eela to live the "last few years" of his life on his own terms. Eela is left alone with Vivan and has to sacrifice her fledgling music career to care for her son. But this makes her overprotective and overbearing. She doesn't allow Vivan to take any risks and as a result Vivan doesn't have a normal life. He can't go alone to school camp, without Eela secretly following him and embarrassing him in front of his friends.Vivan grows up and Eela's interference knows no bounds, including his sex life. Eela tries to control every aspect of Vivan's life and ends up suffocating him. Eela uses every manipulation trick in the book to get Vivan to do what she wants. Vivan encourages Eela to pick up a hobby so she can keep herself occupied. Eela likes the idea and decides to complete her education. Eela feels that Vivan is not spending enough time with her, so she decides to join Vivan's college as a student. Vivan is very apprehensive about Eela studying at his college.Unfortunately, her plans backfire and she suffer a backlash from Vivan for invading his privacy. Principal of the College (Zakir Hussain) is not super thrilled to have Eela in the college. Eela's news of joining college is printed in the papers and this brings unwanted attention on Vivan.Things start going badly from day one as the duo get into confrontational situations every time they cross each other in college. Lisa Marine (Neha Dhupia) is head of dramatics club and is hosting a play, in which Vivan is playing guitar. He doesn't want Eela to come near the club. But Lisa watches KBC where Amitabh Bachchan asks a question about a song sung by Eela long back. Lisa is impressed and asks Eela to join the play. Eela refuses and Lisa threatens to fire Vivan from the play.One day Arun decides to return to their lives. But Eela and Vivan both make sure that Arun understands that they don't need him anymore. Arun leaves. When Eela interferes with the love spat of Vivan's friends, he leaves home and tells Eela that she seriously needs the space. Vivan quits the college play, but Lisa inspires Eela to rise above her personal self to excel at what she is clearly passionate about.The day before the college competition, the organizers change the rules that no performer should be above 23 years of age. This has been done to discourage colleges who offer admissions to professional performers to win competitions. Lisa is furious, but Eela helps her to identify a backup and get her ready for the performance. The college goes on stage without Eela. After the performance, Vivan occupies the stage and forces Eela to come and perform her song, which is a hit with the audience. Eela finally finds herself and her identity and is ready to move on.

Storyline

• Eela is an aspiring playback singer and single mother. She has given up all her dreams to raise her only son. But now her baby son 'Vivan' is all grown up and being a typical young millennial, doesn't want his mother's life to revolve around him. But being an over protective mother, Eela has other ideas and joins her son's college to spend more time with him. Unfortunately her plans backfire and she suffers a backlash from Vivan for invading his privacy. Will Helicopter Eela manage to salvage her relationship with Vivan and find her calling again?