That's the name of the english version of the movie that I am going to write about today, Masaan.
Life becomes worthy of living when you come across movies like Masaan.
Masaan is an apbhramsha (twisted due to local dialect) of Sanskrit word Shmashaan i.e. A Hindu Crematorium. The movie revolves around two blooming, meandering, struggling and eventually dying love stories around river Ganga, City of Banaras and burning pyres on banks of river Ganga. Surprisingly, in spite of the dark and sad mood during most part of the movie, the movie has a super hopeful climax where the two love stories appear to be merging. This would create a strange happy anxiety in hearts of movie-viewers.
Sincerely, I felt thankful to the director, writer and actors of the movie for giving me a long awaited experience.
It deserves the best appreciation possible because not only this movie makes your heart do a roller coaster ride of emotions, but also it's a debut movie of director Neeraj Ghaywan, writer Varun Grover and then so many main actors like Vicky Kaushal and Shweta Tripathi.
Cast: Richa Chadha, Sanjay Mishra, Vicky Kaushal, Shweta Tripathi, Pankaj Tripathi.
Plot: Movie starts with Devi (Richa Chadha) disguising as a married lady and walking into a cheap hotel room with a fellow student Piyush for a desperate sex session only to get caught by local police midway during the hot romp session. Frightened by the risk of public shame, Piyush commits suicide and dies.
Starts a murky phase of blackmailing by police inspector Mishra where he asks father of Devi, Vidyadhar Pathak ji (Sanjay Mishra), to pay a bribe of 3 lakh rupees in lieu of shutting down the case.
Pathak ji is not a man who can source that kind of money right away due to his righteous ways of living and most of the movie shows him struggling to earn and collect this money through all possible means that he dreaded and hated in past.
Devi keeps shuttling and hopping from jobs to jobs in hope of finding a decent place to work and trying to forget Piyush.
In parallel is running another story of Shalu and Deepak in the same city of Banaras.
Deepak is young promising son of a local "Dom" family who are part of this ancient community who assist in burning of dead bodies on the banks of Ganga. Though he is deep into his family vocation of assisting in burning pyres and breaking skulls using sticks, he yearns to free himself and fly away into a more socially respectable job. He is shown to be a career oriented, forward looking and instinctive guy. Comes in a bubbly and vivacious girl Shalu who steals away Deepak's heart. Starts a beautiful part of the movie. They keep advancing on the journey of love where they even talk of eloping away as socially they would not be allowed to marry due to their caste differences.
But destiny had something else in store.
Shalu dies in an accident and Deepak realises about it only when her dead body is brought to him while he is busy in his daily duty of burning dead bodies. He recognises her body through the ring which she used to wear. This part of movie stuns as no one could expect the crude twist of death shaking up all kind of stories that a normal Indian movie goer would start romantically cooking up. Stunned me big time indeed.
Movie moves on. Deepak falls into a deep vicious loop of remorse, holding onto Shalu's last souvenir, her ring.
The movie seems to be going into never ending sad depressing events, one after another.
But then as climax approaches the movie suddenly shifts the emotional gears and things start falling into their logical slots, and for a change, the depression vaporises away.
Pathak Ji pays off the money fleecing blackmailing Inspector Mishra. Devi settles peace with Piyush family by personally explaining herself to them and lands up a stable job in Allahabad, away from her hometown and father. On similar lines, even Deepak secures a stable govt job and that too in city of Allahabad. The two stories seemingly and symbolically confluence while both of them are traversing the confluence of three rivers, Sangam, the major tourist spot of of the city of Allahabad.
High Points:
1. The "moral" police barging into privacy of Devi and Piyush leading to Piyush' suicide.
2. Pathak ji being blackmailed by police.
3. Deepak and Shalu courting and chatting on phone where she recites beautiful poems to him while He admits that he doesn't know any of those poets and their works
4. Deepak informing Shalu of his family background
5. Shalu's death and Deepak's long drawn mourning and dark remorse
6. Pathak ji running to hospital with near dead Jhonta, a kid who used to assist him in his shop and his struggle to earn the urgent money
7. The two protagonists meeting at sangam out of strange destiny
Overall: The movie is meant for discerning movie-goers and not for the average latka jhatka seeking Sooraj Barjatya, Karan Johar and Chutzpah band of "Khan"dom lovers. It hits you deep in the belly and makes it twitch with pain. You won't breath easy till long and till you decide to take out the best story ahead in your own mind.
Watch it for kick-ass story, smartly edited screenplay, simple yet thought provoking dialogues, nuanced yet deeply convincing small town love stories, real feel acting, soothing and well weaved music, awesome lyrics and then some bright new talented faces working with some tenured experts.
Watch it while you are relaxing at home with a good quality single malt mixed with ice n water, stirred ;-)
My Rating - 4.5*
Have fun ! Chalaa Taani !
Neo.
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