There’s an incredibly familiar feel to the movie. This sense of being lost in time, in the middle of a room full to overflowing with people you know and people who know you.. and in the midst of that bustle there’s a sudden hush in your ears and you feel like you’re living someone else’s life, in someone else’s body, and you’re really all alone.. and then someone bumps into you and makes you feel real again...
Thats what i saw in the movie..
Its like a painting, the artist’s hand paints what his mind sees, your eyes see something different... i don’t know if that poignancy and that sense of belonging to nothing and everything was what they were trying to portray but that is what i saw.. the dialogues were amazing.. the opening sequence... the handheld videocamera captures the hidden girl’s voice and shows us the rain as she sees it.. the movement of the windshield wipers, the drops sliding down the windowpane.. its like the rain and the city itself IS a character in the movie, the cars on the road are a part of the story, not just props in the background.. the camera itself is not a mere tool, its the narrator, of yasmin’s story, capturing every nuance of expression... her makeup, her clothing, her entire demeanour changes subtly through the narrative, just like munna and arun change.. the only unchanged character is shai.. who is the one trying to unravel the story around her.. capturing places and people she would never meet in her own life, who welcomes everyone into her life with open arms.. she’s as comfortable inviting the dhobi in to talk to her as she is in a fashionable art event with the rich and famous.. her mannerism doesn’t change with anyone, she’s equally loving, naive, accepting and careless with everyone.. she is the one anomalous character in the entire movie full of real people.. but she is real in her very quirkiness.. she’s the NRI who doesn’t care about social classes and is equally happy eating pao bhaji in a fly-infested restaurant as she is at a posh nightclub..
The most incredible was the ending.. which is really not an ‘ending’ at all.. its a stage where people grow up, change, let go of things they held inside and take a step forward.. munna lets go of the crazy love he has, as does shai, arun finds his muse in the memoirs of a dead yasmin..
The pictures and the paintings involved in the movie are equally beautiful.. the series shai is shown to have done on the people.. portraits of everyday life so mundane taht you never see the beauty of the scene.. the crowd, the market, the wrinkles on the face of the rickshaw puller.. the yards and yards of clothes hung out to dry... ist a deeply visual film.. its everyday life seen with a hidden camera.. showing things that you would never otherwise notice.. the neighbour aunty packing food for her husband and kids, the surf on the sea.. the tired smile on the face of a dejected young wife, the shy bravado on the face of the boy-man taking time out from a crushing life to dream ..
Its the everyday things that one never notices that create the whole picture... its people who touch your life in places that don’t even register unless you look closely and find how their life meshes with yours... a conversation on the phone while cooking a meal, a downpour that you run through, a walk on a road that you take every day and never notice the road or the people who surround you.. its life...
Its a must watch movie..
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On a completely unrelated note.. I got Amir khan’s autograph!!!!!!! YAY!
