25/32
In Mumbai, nurse Prabha’s daily life is thrown into disarray when she receives an unexpected gift from her estranged husband. Her younger roommate Anu tries in vain to find a place in the city where she can be intimate with her boyfriend. First Indian film to win the prestigious Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival in 2024. After hearing so many positive reviews, I really wanted to like this film, but for me, it is not a masterpiece and just another forgettable film without anything spectacular. The film is about a Malayali nurse working in Bombay and living separately from her husband. She shares a room with another nurse who has a lover and both of them struggle to find a place to stay. The third story is about an old woman who is evicted from the house she lives in. To my dismay, the film resorts too much to cliched stylistic devices to the point of being downright predictable and boring. The protagonist longs for a connection, even if she resists it. At many points, she is the film’s superego, blocking out the others’ desperate cries with idioms, yet still trying to imagine light in the darkness of her loneliness in the end. Her roommate is her counterpart in this respect. She has no inhibitions, is in love with a Muslim boy, and the two are looking for a place to make love. You can see the well-trodden path of a submissive woman’s story. She is portrayed as too righteous, almost like a nun. In fact, the film’s background music is from a piece composed by an Ethiopian nun. In many ways, it reminded me of Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day. The story of the roommate and her lover didn’t add much to the story other than serving as a sex filler. Personally, I’m not a big fan of inappropriate nudity and sex in films, they are exploitative in nature and hardly carry the story. The story about the old lady started out as a social commentary on class and the hidden rules of society. At one point, she wonders whether she should face the reality of her existence or indulge in the illusion like everyone else. She eventually leaves the city and goes to her hometown. This story goes nowhere and hence was underwhelming. All in all, the film doesn’t say anything new, it’s not a gut punch like Salaam Bombay, it doesn’t make you as dark as The Lunchbox. Still, one can only admire Payal Kapadia’s craftsmanship. I have seen numerous films about Bombay but nothing captures the era like this film. However, especially in the second half of the film, one felt that she was trying very hard to bring all the stories together and bring them to a conclusion. I am by no means calling it a bad film. It is clever and well made but fails to say anything that hasn’t been said by films before.
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