Yeh Hai Bakrapur, Hindi Bollywood Film Movie Review, Johnson Thomas, Rating: * * *
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Hindi Film review
Johnson Thomas
Sublime satire mocking the existing Political system
Film: Yeh Hai Bakrapur
Cast: Anshuman Jha, Asif basra, Suruchi Aulak, Faiz
Khan, Yoshika Verma
Director: Janki Vishwanathan
Rating: * * *
This is one of the most engaging satire’s seen in
recent times. Janki Vishwanathan’s sequestered narrative manages to capture the
right mood and moments to make this mocking bird fly –even though it comes from
a realm that hasn’t seen much creative success in bollywood. A metaphor on the
communal nature of life in middle India, the film starts off as a social satire
and ends up harping on the political nature of institutions meant to be
otherwise. The so-called protectors of our democracy are shown-up as men with
feet of clay, and it’s all done with kid gloves on. So there’s little room for any
offence or disrespect.
Residing in a nondescript village somewhere in
middle India, The Quereshi family struggles with financial woes until they
decide to sell their goat, Shah Rukh, a beloved of their little son(Shameen
Khan). The young boy seeks the help of a Mumbai returned barber (Anshuman Jha)who
is sneakily engaged in wooing the boy’s older sister. The barber helps out by
painting the word ‘Allah’ in urdu, on the side of the goat. And immediately the
Quereshis experience a turnaround of fortunes, to the extent that people begin
borrowing money from them and they even have a Sheikh from Arabia offering an
obscene amount for purchase of the precious goat. Not to be left behind , a steady
line of claimants suddenly crop up from out of the wood-work, all claiming some
connection to Shah Rukh and therefore the potential wealth soon to be claimed. And
a Hindu-Muslim face-off is imminent considering the political overtones that emerge from diverse claimants from
across the communal divide.
A series of bewildering turns later, the Quereshi
family escape the muddle of their
utopian dream only to find themselves corralled by cops who appear to have
their own agenda and political and ideological affiliations.
The opening sequence is of the Goat, Shah Rukh,
being followed by a group of marching policemen- a ridiculous sight that makes
sense only towards the end of the inveigling narration. And in between flows
the whimsical tale of the luckless family who suddenly see riches only to be
thwarted by a system that does not recognise the rights of the poor and the
disadvantaged. Janki Vishwanathan’s scripted narrative takes the slow route to
engagement, steadily developing a sublime allegory for neediness and ignorance.
Shah Rukh’s opportune divinity is probably a telling indictment on the star
system and the idolatry overtures made by their fans. The writing is tongue-in-cheek,
dialogues and treatment veer towards minimalistic and the performances mark-up
the engagement with it’s sharp nuances. The focus is on the quirks of the
characters in play here. The issues raised here, including vulnerability to
religious hypocracy, bigotry, love and materialism, politics and religion, all
find sustenance in the deft maneuvering of the characters within the typographical
milieu. The music by Agni lends that extra polish and whimsy to the
experiences.
The cinematography by Abhinandan Ramanujam, allows
for total believability in the deliberately incredulous exposition and development. The
sudden sharp turns in plotting does appear challenging but the smartly
engineered immediate immersive engagement facilitated by the note-perfect ensemble cast rarely
allows for any doubt to take root. Strong
on nuances and low on rhetoric, this quasi socio-political satire makes for
sublime viewing!
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