Synopsis :
Everybody Says I'm Fine centers around trendy hairstylist Xen (Rehaan Engineer) and his salon Xen's. Most hair stylists know all the gossip but thanks to a childhood accident Xen has the uncanny ability to read his customers' mind — only when he is sniping their locks.

The psychic gift opens dark secrets as he cuts, coifs and colours and leads Bose's camera in…

This power has Xen leading a monk-like existence --- with his salon and studio apartment separated by a staircase. His life is filled with a cloying silence as he watches television on mute and doesn't have any thoughts except for the voices of his clients that fill his head and nightmarish dreams of his childhood accident.

The first half inches slowly as the film explores the lives of several customers through Xen's eyes, who on the surface seem brazen, but underneath have tangled lives. There is a wannabe-actor Rage (Rahul Bose), two wealthy socialites Tanya Ruia (Pooja Bhatt) and Misha Patel (Anahita Uberoi), a corporate czar Mr Mittal (Boman Irani) and two college freshers Bobby (Sharokh Bharucha) and Tina (Junelia Augiar). Xen uses his ability to heal them but he is powerless to help himself. He hears the first pangs of teenage crush between Bobby and Tina. He also hears how Rage is ready to take his life. Dipping in and out of the lives of the customers like a soap opera, Xen also reads Tanya's mind. Separated from her husband and fallen from her upper society posse, he helps her maintain her dignity at the salon.

Xen cannot probe into the thoughts of Nikita, an idle 25 year old whose attitude borders on the eccentric. He is fascinated by her as she manages to keep her mind closed to his scissor sharp probings, throwing the duo off to an exploration of each other's feelings and longings. Which finally leads to another dark secret in the climax of the film that leads Xen and Nikki to heal each other.

A still from Everybody Says I'm Fine The premise of the film based on Premchand novel, Pardah, is fascinating. Where Bose wins is when his creation of a portrait of contemporary, high-society Mumbai that is nuanced and knowing, keenly observed and refreshingly free of the usual stereotypes. Bose has fun with his witty concept for the first part of his film as he manages to charismatically convey the culture of the salon, with its polite small talk, occasional snobbery and idle flirtations.

He handles a few scenes with ease of a veteran --- notable amongst which is the deft love making scene told entirely through the eyes of Xen and Nikki, the fumble-make-out scene between the young college students and the quick and yet poignant climax.

Where Bose loses out is the pace of the film: the first half barely moves while the second finishes in a flash. The script written in 33 days needed more polishing as it leaves too many niggling questions.