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| (Image courtesy;Youtube.com - From MASAAN theatrical trailer. |
Masaan-
Mann Kasturi re… jagg dasturi re.. baat hui na puri re..
- The
whole film can sum up in these two lines; which is a song in the movie, written by Varun Grover.
Masaan made me speechless when it was finished and that scene of two of them-
Devi (Richa Chadda) and Deepak (Vicky Kaushal) sat on boat for Sangam and the
dialogue came, where Deepak said- waise
kisi ne kaha hai ki sangam do baar aana chahiye.She replied- “kyu?”
ek
baar akele dusri baar kisi ke sath" And the credit starts
rolling and I was sitting silently without having any reaction on my face. I was
in a tranquil and peace.
'Masaan', with serenity, gives you the chill to your soul. It’s all about – Life, death; and in between.
And how one struggles between that.
Masaan is a journey in itself, which tell you the real truth.
The film opens with Devi (Richa Chadda) watching porn on her
computer during the day. Soon, she leaves her room, dressed in salwar kameez
and carrying a backpack. She changes into a sari at a public toilet and meets
Piyush (Saurabh Chaudhary).They are in a cheap hotel room, with curtains drawn,
the two stands, shy and awkward. Within seconds, they are in bed, and start
making love (for which they came for). Suddenly, Police banged the door and
come inside, the cops start questioning the both couple and in the terror of
police the boy rushes to the bathroom and locked himself and when police breaks
the lock of door and saw that the boy has cut his veins and died.
Why would
two lovers be threatened by the cops, as if caught in a prostitution racket?
Because the police is part of the moral brigade and more than willing to take
advantage of the public shame and ignominy that surrounds premarital sex.
Devi’s father,
Vidyadhar Pathak (Sanjay Misra), a respected former Sanskrit teacher who sells
religious wares on the banks of Ganga, is summoned to the police station and
told his daughter was caught having sex and that her reason for her shameful
act is “jigyasa” (curiosity or questioning.) Pandit ji in fear, tell cops to do
something for her child, Senior Inspector(S.P) use his fear for his earning and
tells panditji to arrange some money( sum of three lakhs) in 3 month,
otherwise he will give the video of his daughter in hotel to media. Sanjay
Mishra beautifully played the role of a struggling father-who was a Sanskrit
intellect who now selling religious wares on Ganga ghat and now wants to save
her child for going jail. There is also a kid (Jhonta), about eight year in age- who works and stay in pandit
ji's religions ware and stuffs shop. Writer has beautifully convey the message of child labor and the
pressure of work we give to kid to earn money. Because it’s a gambling, in
which, the kids dives in water to collect coins and the one who will collect coins fast( thrown at the water) will win and the kid will also get money as a winning prize and the one who bet on that kid also get gambled amount. In the greed of money
(because he has to give 3 lakh to the SP within three months), pandit (Sanjay
Mishra), pushed Jhonta toward the game so that he can retain whole winning amount from him.
And during the game, Jhonta drowns in the water, but later got escaped and taken to hospital. Pandit Vidyadhar Pathak(Sanjay Mishra) realized his mistake of 'over pressuring' a eight year old innocent kid
for his own mean and in the fears of collecting money to give to Inspector holding the case of his daughter (Devi). He realized and
promised Jhonta, that he will never do any harm to the kid furthermore for greed.
The film has another story of a young guy
Deepak Chaudhary(Vicky Kaushal) studying civil engineering from Varanasi
(Banaras), he is also the son of ‘Domm Raja’* of Banaras. Dom raja is the head
cementer of cremation ghat at Benares, whose works are cementing the dead body
at Varanasi Ghats. As the youngest kid of the family, his father (Dom Raja) never pressured him to do the family two-tier hierarchy
business of roasting dead body and their cremation(kriya
karam).
Deepak (Vicky Kaushal) fall in
love with a girl – Shalu (Shweta Tripathi), Deepak with his friend tries to
impress her with gifts and his charm. Shalu accept his friend request of
facebook and they go on a date and friendship began, they use to talk on phone
and shalu- who loves poetry, use to made him listen every poem .He even record their phone
calls and poem she use to recite him over phone calls, and made it into a one tape with songs in it and gift to shalu to impress
her and they kissed. But later, Shalu goes on trip to Vaishno devi with his
family and dies in a road accident.
Deepak when helping his big brother and father for cementing so many body at
once, who died in a road accident during roasting a body, Deepak founds the the dead body he
is roasting, was wearing the same ring like Shalu use to wear , he got shocked to
see that - it is the dead body of shalu whom he was roasting and got a major shock .
Vicky Kaushal nailed that scene with his mind blowing performance in it , where his and her friend was at bank of river ganga near a railway bridge,
drinking alcohol besides a fire- Where his friend cajoles him for the grief of
Shalu’s death and I remember feeling Goosebumps when he(Deepak) said ‘ humko shayari
pasand hai.. he took few second pause and suddenly point his hand toward the Train
passing from that Railway bridge with honking horns, he then recite a poem line loudly ‘Tu
kisi rail si guzarti hai,main kisi pull sa thartharata hu” and chuckles toward looking at his
friend and cried – “yeh ghamm kyu ni jata be! ?” and cries more loudly in grief. One needs to
watch the scene to saw Vicky Kaushal’s acting talent in the movie.
In Masaan, there are two stories; one of Devi (Richa Chadda) and Deepak (Vicky Kaushal), meets at
the end of film(which is the most beautiful part of the film and it's narration) where two were sitting at the banks in Allahabad near Sangam. Where
Devi went to find his lovers house to confess his parent about that night that
she is not guilty but she failed as the father of boy lose her controls. In dejection, she
was sitting at the Sangam bank and throwing away the packed gift (must be a ring)
that the boy gifts her and tries to get rid of her by throwing her in the
river. She was crying and weeping in grief , by seeing her cry; Deepak went to
her and offer her bottle of water. The boat came near the shore , they board on boat for
Sangam River. And the dialogue came; which I mentioned in the starting of my
article.
This movie hits you hard at the level of soul. It talks about the real truth of
life, death and in between struggles of living race.
My take on movie in terms of acting is- brilliantly performed and beautifully portraying every character in real life
scenario.
In terms of writing- this movie is written by Varun Grover- who is a standup
comedian, lyricist and a writer in Mumbai. He wrote every character of Masaan
close to real life and connecting the two different stories of Deepak and Devi in the end- who are struggling through their own agonies of life, when in the
end of film; Deepak meets Devi in Sangam bank.
And second connection he made was- when Panditji is selling the same ring to a jeweler (so that he can pay the left amount to SP). The ring which Shalu us to wore, which was found by Deepak while cementing her at ghat, and later which he (Deepak) threw in the ganga in anguish. That is a genuinely pure piece of writing, to connect the two different stories in same city.
Director Neeraj Ghaywan in his first ever debuting film- “Masaan” -beautifully
shows the location of Varanasi a.k.a Banaras and managing every aspect of film
to be appear on celluloid to justice the script. He is best for what he did in the film and looks promising for future with his first film.
I also want to give credit to the Editor of the film to pacing the film and
making every shot look good on screen and also did justice to the narrative
aspect of film. The film has three songs in it, composed by Indian Ocean band;
first is - ‘Tu Kisi rail si’ written by Varun Grover and sung by Swanand
Kirikire (Famous hindi film lyricist). Second is- Mann Kasturi- written by Varun
Grover and sung by Indian Ocean Band (Which is in my most played list of
songs). And the third is Bhor; which came at the end of film during credit rolls- sung by Indian Ocean, written by Varun Grover.
Three of them are well written with excess use of ‘rich words’ and ‘metaphors’ coated with good music by Indian ocean Band.
Why
you should watch this film:
This movie is a
gem in India cinema. One will find lots diamonds; in the direction, in the acting skills &
talents, in its cinematography and of course in the narration of its scripts.
And yes, the movie has also won the FIPRESCI, International Jury of Film Critics
prize and Promising Future prize in the Un Certain Regard section in “Cannes film festival”. And it also got five minutes long standing ovation, by
viewers at the screening in ‘Cannes’. Do I need to tell you more reason to
watch the film?
Grab a DVDs a.s.a.p. and watch this Beautiful and soul reaching film.
