"Don't tell me yaar, this is how low Bollywood standard has fallen!" I overheard the young guy sitting next to us exclaim to his friend as the credits rolled out. My sister and I remained glued to our seats, our eyes affixed to the screen, unable to pull ourselves out from the magical tapestry of two ordinary lives that the movie had spun, and woven us into.
The hall was unusually empty for the premier of a Nawazuddin Siddiqui's movie. We had read the review in the weekend edition of Deccan Herald in Hyderabad. It had received three and a half stars by the critiques...Yet, the public still reeling under the sway of Gullyboy (another excellent movie), was not ready for something so poetically uncertain.
Most of those who grew up with Bollywood movies, have gotten accustomed to connecting the dots, and completing the picture, even before the movie is over. They savour its predictability, and revel in their own intuit of déjà vu. But, when it doesn't follow the trajectory as designed by their imagination, a sense of betrayal sets in. So, for several of the movie buffs that might have been the problem with a cinema sine-qua-non, such as Ritesh Batra's 'Photograph'.
Like its predecessor, The Lunchbox, once again Batra has managed to leave the audience spellbound by the sheer simplicity of the plot and the framework within which it takes place. In the movie, the interaction between the oppressive certainty which impinges upon the lives of the wealthy and the hand-to-mouth uncertainty which dictates the day-to-day movements of the poor, creates a fascinating chiaroscuro, while the elusiveness of love itself sets it in motion.
Thanks for this review Seema. I can't wait to see this movie. It's so true. Most of Bollywood movies are pretty much predictable. Yet we often see that the majority of Indian public relishes the same storylines and the stereotype acting of certain so called "film-stars". I really hope this will change. Kudos to directors like Ritesh Batra & actors like Nawazuddin.
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