Tag: Indian

No Fathers in Kashmir

Posted on by victorfraga

Sixteen-year-old Noor (Zara Webb) is in Kashmir for the very first time in her life. This is where she meets her grandparents, and attempts to create a connection with a region that was hitherto entirely foreign to her. The adolescent is British/Western in every way: her accent, her attire, her obsession with taking selfies and publishing on social media.

She meets the local village boy Majid (Shivam Raina), who is of the same age, and they immediately bond. There’s a touch of teen love, nothing too graphic and extreme, palatable for a more conservative Indian audience. They find out that their respective fathers were very good friends as young men. It’s not entirely clear what happened to the men since. Most assume that they died in the violent conflict that has plagued the contested region for decades. Because of uncertainty of their real fate, their wives are often described as “half-widows”. The only one who seems to know the truth is Arshid (played by the director Ashvin Kumar), who was a close friend of the two men. But Arshid refuses to disclose any information. So Noor and Majid set themselves on a mission to uncover the truth.

The two teens get lost in a dense forest as they search for the answers about their elusive family history. But they soon get in trouble, being arrested by patrol soldiers. This is war-ridden region with little regard for their adolescent adventure. Being British-born gives Noor an advantage over Majid, and she’s soon released. But what about the village boy, who enjoys far less rights and protections than his foreign friend?

This is a tender coming-of-age story set against a very tragic backdrop. Noor’s freedoms and joie-de-vivre are contrasted against the far less peaceful and civilised existence that the Kashmiris have to lead. The performances are strong enough to keep you hooked throughout the 108 minutes of the story. Most characters are rather flat and their psychology is easy to understand, making the narrative straightforward and borderline didactic. The only exception is Arshid, the most psychologically complex and ambiguous personage. It’s never clear what his secrets and motives are. Until he unexpectedly takes justice into his own hands…

The contextualisation of the conflict, on the other hand, is far less clear. You won’t find out, for instance, that both India and Pakistan claim Kashmir in its entirety, and that the Indian government recently revoked the special status accorded to the region in its constitution, the most controversial political move in nearly 70 years. They sent thousands of troops , thereby imposed a curfew, shut down telecommunications and arrested political leaders. It will help if you have some understanding of the conflict before you watch the movie.

No Fathers in Kashmir is in cinemas on Friday, January 24th.

Photograph

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The titular photograph of Miloni (Sanya Malhotra) is the thread connecting the episodic narrative. It is taken by Rafi (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) a freelance photographer, eking out a living by taking pictures of tourists at the attraction of the Gateway. Against all the odds and despite the difference in age, background and education, they develop a strong connection.

Said photograph, which is never seen clearly, appears to transform Miloni into an image of beauty. Otherwise, she appears a self-effacing young woman devoted to her studies. Her willingness to go along with her family’s wishes is illustrated by her mother choosing the colour of the dress which suits her best. By volunteering the photograph taken by Rafi, she is compliant in responding to her parents plan to arrange an introduction to a suitable match for her. Despite her own interest in becoming an actress, she studies accountancy at college.

In contrast to the comfortable home where Miloni lives with her parents and sisters, Rafi shares one room in a multi-occupied building with a convivial group of friends and fellow photographers. They and others of Rafi’s acquaintance make much of the fact that his grandmother, living in his home village at a considerable distance (three days journey by train) wants to see him married. He has provided a dowry for each of his sisters and sends money regularly to his grandmother leaving himself with no means of setting up home himself.

Left with extra copies of the photograph of Miloni, it occurs to Rafi to send a sample to his grandmother as proof that he has a girlfriend, not anticipating that this will result in his grandmother coming to see for herself. This sets off a chain of reactions which form the main body of the film. Miloni goes along with the deception and even creates a back story for herself as an orphan. The character of the grandmother (played by Farrukh Jaffar) motivated by the need to see her grandson married, is a an unusual portrayal of a woman in old age, well able to adapt to life in the big city.

Various encounters with taxi drivers, visits to the cinema, a meeting with prospective husband (whose aim in life is to get away from his parents) expand our understanding of the characters of the couple. Miloni with the awareness of Rafi waiting in the background manages effectively to get away from her unpleasantly assertive college lecturer. She benefits from advice from the more worldly-wise maid within her parents household.

Despite the differences in background, Rafi and Miloni each have stories which demonstrate their strong attachment to their grandparents. Little is said but they manage to meet up quite successfully and spend time together. The specially composed music supports the screen images, often creating a melancholy but intimate atmosphere. Who knows how their friendship will progress but each appears to have a deepening understanding of their importance to each other.

Photograph is in cinemas across the UK on Friday, August 2nd.

Widow of Silence

Posted on by victorfraga

Aasia (Shilpi Marwaha), a mother of an 11-year-old girl who co-habits with her ailing mother-in-law, is a half widow: “married, but without a husband”. Her spouse found himself in the Indian army and has not been heard of since. She shares the same story with many women in her village. She has scoured each of the hospitals, morgues, locales for any word. None is given. The tale of the disappeared is one of universal horror and despondency. In this Urdu-language drama, director Praveen Morchhale details the system which dehumanises the many women within their community.

The film opens with the frame of an elderly woman, tied to her chair by a young woman. Bound in her chair, the old woman sits by a clandestine window, shadowing the nature which prohibits her freedom. It’s a telling metaphor by which the rest of the film follows. Though freedom and opportunity are within reach, there are material constraints that separate women from their destination.

It is her son who has gone missing. Her daughter-in-law Aasia must venture throughout the city, which one man describes as “God and Heaven on Earth”. Marwaha is staggering, delivering a motionless performance, internalising the pain she faces when she’s informed that her land can be sold off without her consent. Between frames, she lives in agonising purgatory, unable to re-marry, despite her obvious widowed state.

Finally, she plays to her strengths by asking the District Collector for her husband’s death certificate. He refuses, but later yields on condition she sleeps with him. The afflicted manner by which a human should live their life is filmed naturalistically, long takes displaying the everyday reality people around the world face in a continued, unresolved nightmare.

Shot in 17 days, there are some parallels to the #MeToo milieu. Though the topic matter is universal, this side comparison makes it more appetising for Western audiences to digest. Iranian cinematographer Mohammad Reza Jahanpanah paints the shots with a distant frame. The camera captures the surrounding events objectively and apolitically, with naturalistic display. Harrowing, heavy, haggard. A must-see!

Widow of Silence shows at the The Bagri Foundation London Film Festival. The event celebrates a decade of bringing the best new South Asian films to the UK, with 5 cities, 25 venues and 25 specially curated films. It starts on 20th June 2019 in London continues until 8th July 2019, at cinemas across the UK. For more information on the Festival just click here.

In the Shadows (Gali Guleyan)

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With a title that makes an audience of Millennials think of one hit wonder The Rasmus, In The Shadows is a neo-noir that shows real potential for first-time feature director Dipesh Jain. Opening on a William S Burroughs quote that cues the audience in to the film’s ideological intentions, the film introduces a fragile Khuddoos (a terrific Manoj Bajpayee) watching Delhi through CCTV that he hooked into his apartment. He cuts a figure of an obsessive junkie. But it’s not drugs that are sending him on a downward spiral; it’s the oppressive cycle of a city that seems unable to consolidate its traditions with the technological needs of capitalist society. The paranoia of the city and a distrust of oneself gives the film a dreamlike element.

It’s a dynamic view of the city as shot by Kai Miedendorp: strong shadows intensify a noir aspiration blended with social realism. These play off each other well, such in a brutal scene where Khuddoos listens to his next-door neighbour brutally beating his son. That sets him on an ill-thought-out saviour quest. This element of the story gestures toward a Searchers (John Ford, 1956)/Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1956) lineage to some extent, or might remind an audience of Jaques Audiard’s 2015 Palme D’Or winner Dheepan.

This is a film about a man sickened by his surroundings and taking matters into his own hands. ‘This place is a fucking maze. Once you’re in, you can’t get out.’ This isn’t the sun-kissed labyrinth that we see in LA-set noir, but something closer to distopia. Wires hang loose from walls, hidden alleyways are so narrow you find yourself sucking in your breath to get through them. Derelict buildings line the street. It may be a maze, but it’s one that Jain navigates with ease.

Posters of Vertigo (Hitchcock’s 1958 classic, that’s being re-released later this year) and a scene after scene of characters watching each other on screens or from behind a corner, calls back to the master of suspense and his disciples. A winking shot of blood dripping down a drain makes the link even more apparent. But Jain doesn’t merely try to replicate the technical wizardry of his influences. The director’s confident style juxtaposes the action and mise-en-scene of a thriller with toned down performances and handheld camerawork with flavours of social realism. He exploits the audience’s expectations and keep us unseated, enables the film to delve further into the paranoid psychology of Khuddoos. Imagine if Jafar Panahi remade The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola, 2002) and you’re halfway there.

It is however these kitchen sink elements, particularly in the story of Khuddoos’ neighbours, that hinders the film. The little boy’s perspective lacks a real subjective viewpoint, so it comes through as a rather generic coming-of-age story. It sometimes seems like Jain is drawing a parallel between man and boy (they both see the city in a similar way) but In the Shadows is never quite bold enough to pull it off. The film gives it so much time as to distract from the driving horror of Khuddoos’ descent. Trim 20 minutes, and this could be exceptional. But as it stands, there is a contrived sentimentality and moralising to proceedings that dilutes In the Shadows of the intense power it promises.

In the Shadows runs as part of the 9th edition of the Bagri Foundation London Indian Film Festival, that runs at 15 cinemas, across London, Birmingham and Manchester, from June 21st to July 1st, with 27 films, including features and short films, in competition. It is the largest South Asian film festival in Europe. Buy your tickets here, or at the respective cinema box offices.

Hide and Seek (Lapachhapi)

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Marketed as “inspired in true events”, this very unusual Indian horror movie takes place entirely in an isolated house in the middle of fields. There are spooky children, infanticide, murder, apparitions and much more. Think Children of the Corn (Fritz Kiersch, 1984; based on the eponymous Stephen King book), replacing the cornfields with sugarcane ones, add a few Indian twists, an “evil” female touch and you are halfway there.

Eight-months-pregnant Neha and her husband Tushar flee the big city in order to avoid some thugs, which are after them for some unexplained reason. They find shelter in Tulsi’s house, an old woman living with her catatonic daughter-in-law Laxmi. It’s revealed in the very beginning of the movie that Laxmi was forced to remove with baby from her own belly with a dagger, and she now has a horrendous scar. So it’s very clear from the start on that something isn’t right with Tulsi and her house.

Neha soon realises that she’s in danger and attempts to run away, only to be locked up and apparently drugged. What follows is a number of a hallucinations and illusions blended with reality. She will constantly see creepy children running around, and she will also witness several murders. She now has to work out how much of that is real, and what she needs to do in order to stay alive and save her own baby. The pace of the film is tense and the scares are spaced out enough to keep you hooked and give you a few jump scares.

The movie delves with a number of social woes afflicting Indian women. In this old-fashioned rural environment, females address their husbands by their last names, and they only begin eating when their husbands are finished. But there’s a much more dangerous and deadly tradition that could destroy Neha’s nad her baby’s life; the infinite twists in the film will keep you guessing what this is until the final 20 minutes of the movie. There’s a strong image inside a well which will both shock and open your eyes to this old-fashioned tradition, that’s still very much alive.

Neha and films like Hide and Seek are a testament that Indian women are beginning to raise their voice and to face up an extremely conservative establishment, often entirely on their own and without even their husbands to support them. Male filmmaker Vishal Furia has provided them with a very powerful tool. Let’s hope that Indian women will also step behind the camera show us the world from their gaze. We want to listen, but we also wish to see what these oppressed ladies are seeing.

Hide and Seek is showing as part of the 2017 London Indian Film Festival, which takes places in London and Birmingham from June 22nd to July 3rd. Due to its industry format (the film is made for an Indian market, with an interval in the middle et al), you may not be able to catch it anywhere else after the event – which would be a pity. Let’s hope that I’m wrong and that Indian women can raise their voice for the entire world to see, and that cinema provides them with a suitable platform.

The teaser below gives you an idea of the movie feel, but it doesn’t do it justice in its entirety. This is definitely one to watch, so get your ticket now!