Release
date:
|
November 3, 2017
|
Director:
|
Rakhee Sandilya
|
Cast:
Language:
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Kalki Koechlin, Sumeet Vyas
Hindi
|
Ribbon is not a neatly structured drama with an
introduction and a conclusion. It is presented as an in-between.
Sahana and Karan were around prior to our acquaintance with them, and no clumsy
attempt is made to give us a crunched-down backstory. They existed before we knew them, and they will continue to exist
afterwards – that is all the information available to us.
Director Rakhee
Sandilya’s Ribbon feels like a home
video of around half a decade of their lives: unpolished and achingly real. It has five names in the writing credits – story by Eklavya,
screenplay by Rajeev Upadhyay and Sandilya herself, dialogues by Raghav Dutt
and Manjiri Pupala – yet its brilliance lies in the fact that it comes across as being barely pre-written, and mostly an improv piece.
Sahana and Karan are
24x7 professionals with a plan that threatens to go awry when she discovers
that she is pregnant. Ribbon takes
off from this moment in their lives and takes us along with them through the
dilemma of whether or not to have that baby, and thereafter.
On the face of it, it
is a portrait of an urban marriage in 21st century India. That
though is a literal interpretation. At a deeper level, Sandilya’s film is about
what it means to share your life with another human being over a number of
years. Sure, Sahana and Karan are heterosexual, married and based in contemporary
Mumbai, but they could well have been unmarried, they could have been parents
or without children, they could have been homosexual and of any gender, or
friends with no romantic interest in each other (or friends with benefits) who
have decided to stay in the same house on a long-term basis for whatever
reasons and defying social norms, or siblings living together. The beauty of Ribbon is that in any of these specific
scenarios, in a city, village or town, the external pulls and pushes would obviously
change, but the underlying theme would remain and manifest itself in the internal
wranglings in the relationship in question – the silly misunderstandings, the serious
disagreements, the ammunition fished out of past experiences during fights, the
laughter, the coping, the leaning on each other, the getting along.
At the end of it
all, Ribbon reminds us, because such reminders
are constantly needed, that there is
no such thing as absolute normalcy or calm in any home, and that while many of
us may be happy together, none of us has it easy.
(Possible spoilers ahead)
In their first
encounter captured on camera, Sahana appears somewhat unfairly
aggressive and unreasonable in her anger towards Karan. Later though, as we witness
her fears – expressed in that scene – coming true, we see too that Sandilya is
not taking sides in Ribbon, she is merely
showing us what is and how it is between these two.
For such a film to
stay true to itself, it was essential for it not to become fixated on one or
two issues – because that is not how reality plays out – and Sandilya does not
waver in her intent for a single second. That said, Ribbon does provide us with
a bird’s eye view of several social concerns, without meting out superficial
treatment to any. Gender discrimination at work, for one – notwithstanding favourable
maternity-related laws on paper, anyone who cares to survey women in such
situations will tell you that what Sahana comes up against is exactly what goes
on in Indian offices. Then there is the stress of dealing with household help,
and other blows and hurdles.
(Spoiler alert ends)
The stars of this
enterprise seem to have left Kalki Koechlin and Sumeet Vyas somewhere outside
their shoot locations. All we see are Sahana and Karan. Both artistes are so convincing
that it becomes hard to believe this is not who they are off screen too. Ribbon is a demanding film, with the
camera staying doggedly focused on them, and they do not wilt under the challenge for even an instant. We are offered glimpses of interesting satellite characters,
but the gaze never shifts from
Koechlin’s Sahana and Vyas’ Karan.
The most significant supporting player is a very young lady who is so well chosen and so incredibly spot on in her
performance – if it can be called that – that casting director Neha Singh
deserves special kudos, while Sandilya should get an award if nothing else then
for directing her.
Crucial to the
effectiveness of the cast is the deliberately unrefined camerawork. For the first
8-10 minutes, for instance, we do not get a clear frontal view of Vyas’ face.
It is the kind of exasperating thing your cousin might do with a video of a
family gathering, and with that the mood of the film is set. Subsequently too,
there are no lingering close-ups or other sophisticated shots. The rawness of DoP
Vikram Amladi’s frames turns us into unintrusive companions to our
protagonists. It is as if we are hanging out with them and they trust us enough
to let us stay.
Rakhee Sandilya’s
conviction on debut is astonishing. Ribbon
could be what Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Basu Bhattacharya, Basu Chatterjee or Sai
Paranjpye might have done if they had been asked to turn a reality TV show on
Sahana and Karan into a feature film. It reminded me, too, of Krishan Chopra’s
1961 film Char Diwari (co-edited, by the way, by Mukherjee) which, in
synopsis, can only be described as: what happens when Lakshmi (Nanda) marries Sunil
(Shashi Kapoor).
As I write this
review, a quote from Alfred Hitchcock is flashing on TV in an ad: “Drama is
life with the dull bits cut out.” Ribbon
contradicts the legend. It tells us that all life is inherently
dramatic and what strikes the observer as mundane could well be transformative,
traumatic and/or exhilarating for those going through it. Ribbon is a deceptively simple,
remarkable film with a risky concept that has paid off. It is without question one of India’s best of 2017 so far.
Rating
(out of five stars): ****1/2
CBFC Rating (India):
|
UA
|
Running time:
|
106 minutes
|
where can i watch this film,Do you know a website from where i can download this movie..
ReplyDeleteThank you.