Sairat: Love in the time of family honour

Nagaj Manjule, the celebrated directed of the cult Marathi film Fandry has come out with yet another compelling tale in Sairat. The film is very important for our times, especially where caste and creed take priority over blood relations; where humanity is sacrificed on the altar of so called family honour and pride.

Director: Nagraj Manjule

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The film is a suave narration of love story between a boy (Parshya) from a poor family and a girl (Archi) from the upper echelons. As expected, it is a love tale that cannot be! And hence all the drama has to unfold. As the narrative proceeds, though, there seems to be a semblance of normalcy appearing, and yet what seems to win at the end is the tragic ‘family honour’.

The whole film is a realistic scripting of what seems to happen in many parts of Indian conservative societies. It is not making undue overt statements either. The characters in the film are the next door neighbours going about their daily routine. However, things take a serious turn when what seems normal is ‘shattered’ by the unusual love tale.

This is indeed an important film for our time – a time which has developed so much scientifically and technologically and yet backward in its reasoning and attitudes to life. Not just for the narrative it unfolds, but for the boldness it exhibits in presenting the day to day events in all its beauty and rawness. In fact, this film has the potential to both entertain and shock, placing before us the limitless passions – both positive and negative – at work among humans. The young new actors – deserve plaudits for the life they have added to the narrative.

- Melwyn Pinto SJ

Finding Fanny: Journey within

Finding Fanny is an odd film amidst hundreds of Bollywood films that vie for attention every week. It is an off-beat, yet deeply sincere attempt to craft human search for love. The film falls in the genre of road movies. While on the road on a journey in search of a long-lost love, each of the five characters finds himself/herself, or rather they find their true destiny.

Director: Homi Adjania

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Each of the five characters that journey on the road to find Fanny, has a love story that has never been explored as yet. However, each of them is embroiled in a precarious situation that needs to be overcome. While those that can rise above their self-centredness end up happy, one of them, the most egocentric, disappears into oblivion. What lingers on with the audience is the ‘ideology’ of the film: even while life ends, love lasts forever. And this thought is put across in the narration as simply as possible. In fact, the film itself has a very easy take on life. You find the characters living life with very few of its complications.

The casting has been near perfect, with legendary Naseeruddin Shah, Dimple Kapadia and Pankaj Kapoor giving the film a classic character. Deepika Padukone and Arjun Kapoor are the younger and romantic additions. One must say, in this film it is these five characters, more than anything else, who define the soul of the film. Of course, one must not forget the typical Goan-Portuguese style music and the scenic picturisation. The Goan backdrop adds natural flavour to the overall theme of the film. 

- Melwyn Pinto SJ

Amour: True meaning of love!

Amour means love in several languages. This is a French film. The love that this film deals with is the love of an old man for his wife who is also of almost his age. She is incapacitated by a stroke due to the shock of a robbery taking place in the house. The man Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant) promises his wife Anne (Emmanuelle Riva) that he would not put her in the hospital as she is afraid of doctors. Instead, he looks after her delicately at home. However, things are not as simple as he thinks they would be. She deteriorates day after day. Worse, she begins to get more and more hysteric. He is painfully inadequate in dealing with such a miserable situation. But he puts up with all that, because he loves his wife so deeply. The end also looks more as a consequence of his love than anything else.

Director: Michael Haneke

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Amour is the official film selected from Austria for this year’s Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Film category and is a front runner to win the award. The narration is melancholic and the mood looks very depressing. But, each scene is delicately woven to portray what true love means and what its burdens and consequences are. True love is full of passion at one level; it is also full of pains at another. This seems to be the message the film tries to put across.

The film has very little embellishments except the fine performances by the lead characters, especially Emmanuelle Riva. She is one of the strong contenders to win the best actress award. The camera acts more as an observer than recorder of scenes, because each moment seems so realistic. Finally, one cannot help but realise after watching this film that, it is one thing to grow old gracefully, but quite different to grow old together!

- Melwyn Pinto SJ