A movie about a decrepit ‘haweli’ and its destitute landlords & tenants. Mirza(Amitabh Bachchan) and Fatima begum(Farooq Zafar)constitute the first group whereas Baankey(Ayushman Khurana) & Co. fill up the latter. Bolstering the interest quotient are a sarkari babu(Vijay Raza) and a lawyer(Brijendra Kala). We have here stellar performances, astute direction, a nuanced script, caressing cinematography, and an enchanting background score. Yet somehow, the finished whole falls well short of the sum of its parts. So short in fact that were it not for the last five minutes I would’ve rated the movie as less than middling. Yes, it’s the ending that took me by absolute surprise. Not the O’Henry kind of surprise (which is engineered by a turn of events) but the Maupassant variety (which relies more on the juggling of emotions.) Mirza and Baankey are sitting at the banks of what looks to be the Gomti river. Bankey asks Mirza what he saw in Fatima begum(a woman 15 years his senior)that he agreed to marry her. ‘Haweli,’ replies Mirza very matter of factly (the haweli belongs to Fatima). After a pause, Bankey comes up with the natural follow-up question, ‘और बेगम ने क्या देख लिया तुम में?’ Mirza looks askance at Bankey, as if such a query could even be conceivable. ‘हमारी जवानी,’ he eventually replies. The movie ends and a song starts to play in the background. दो दिन का ये मेला है खेला फिर उठ जाना है माटी का बर्तन है प्यारे माटी में मिल जाना है It’s here that the fleeting nature of it all - not just life and youth but damned near everything - hits you from an unexpected quarter. Real and reel lose their distinction. For it’s not only the hunchbacked Mirza who was once young; so too was Amitabh Bachchan. I’m involuntarily reminded of that irresistible hunk from Silsila. Interesting indeed is fleetingness! But what’s even more interesting is our total disregard of that phenomenon. We plan as if we are to live endlessly. Mirza - who’s nearly eighty years of age - is prepared to go to any length to own a haveli he’s already living in. Not surprisingly, Mirza isn’t the sole fictional character of advanced years who’s obsessed with a personal objective. Others that come to mind are Santiago in Old Man And The Sea and Micheal Keaton in Birdman. That our age isn’t a barrier in our ability to dream may perhaps be the most significant of our gifts. And yet, when we see a man of advanced years enthused with an objective, a faint tint of gloom shrouds our endorsement of his efforts. It’s noteworthy that the proportion of ‘gloom’ and ‘endorsement’ vary from case to case. Santiago’s nobility, Birdman’s vanity, and Mirza’s petty greed; each elicit different measures of gloom and endorsement. Now endorsement is understandable. The question is why should there be any gloom at all. What’s it that is quite not right about an aged man pursuing his dreams? The answer, I think, lies in the purpose of such pursuit. Though every man has every right to chase dreams at every age, it’s only the young who’re afforded the liberty of chasing dreams for the purpose of validating their self-worth. When an old man needs to chase dreams for such a purpose, it reveals a certain deep-rooted deprivation. And that of course is not a pleasant sight.
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AuthorSachin Jha. Archives
October 2020
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