Even as the box office celebrates
Baahubali and Bajrangi, Masaan celebrates good cinema. When last did we watch a
heart tugging tale told of tears failures gnaws and scars? At a time when
cinema eschews suffering as an integral part of life and mirrors a contemporary
take of summary refusal of human frailty, we have Neeraj Ghaywan revisiting the
fictional space that echoes misery as an integral part of the temporal picnic.
It must be said to the credit of the film that every moment of the 109 minutes
is crafted to relevance. The banks of the Ganga is not an excuse it is the
stage. Unlike Laaga Chuniri and Raajnaah, Ram Leela, etc., the fame, the
streets, the history hardly is relevant. Yet it is the constant backdrop. The
translucent morbidity of death and fire on the banks of the holy river, a
milieu caught up in its rituals and a new generation fighting to come to terms
is told with poignancy and honesty, intensity and is completely stripped of
pomposity. The cast turn out their sincere best. Special mention must be made
of Sanjay Misra and Vicky Kaushal.
Life chooses and without cause. It scripts without much ado how life can
suddenly pick on its victim and throw one out of gear. It chokes and churns.
This Namami Gange does not clean, clear or eulogise the river. It narrates two
stories, one bitter, one hope filled, running their course till they meet
albeit tamely.
Devi (Richa Chada) an IT instructor at a local computer centre keeps her tryst
with Piyush (Saurabh Chaudhary) at a local hotel. The evening goes completely
wrong. The police arrive and raid the hotel. Inspector Mishra (Bhagwan Tiwari)
makes best use of the scenario. While Piyush chooses the easy route, Devi stays
to face the brunt. Her father Vidyadhar Pathak (Sanjay Misra) a traditional
lower middle class man running a small store on the banks of Ganga with the
assistance of Jonta (Nikhil Sahani) finds his world suffer seismic tremors and
does what he is forced to – succumb to blackmail. There is no way he wants the
escapades of his daughter on YouTube.
There is also Deepak (Vicky Kaushal) in the throes of adolescent romance with
Shaalu (Shweta Tiwari). Deepak belongs to a ‘low caste’ and the family spends
every wake filled hour arranging pyres at the crematorium on the ghats. When
Deepak is not pursuing his academic goals he is busy burning the dead bodies or
facing the wrath of his frustrated sibling. The class caste divide in the
traditional backdrop is simmering and ready to erupt. Life and Death have other
ideas. One night at the ghat when Deepak is doing overtime, life offers its
blow. Why does life choose these two for special harsh treatment? No time for metaphysics.
The survivor has to live – nay, make peace with existence. Resolute by
compulsion, pushed by inertia the two walk their pathways with bitter sorrow
and tears. They move away from the stifling environs in the hope that Time will
balm the scar.
As the movie comes to a close, the sparse audience, sober and calm are making
their respective efforts to return from the morbid pyres on the banks of Ganga,
erase their memories of the haunting grave yard and the haunt filled Masaan and
wipe their tears.
Meanwhile Devi and Deepak get into a boat. They seem to address life:
Tere bina kya wajood mera
Ab tum hi ho, tum hi ho
Mera dard bhi
Mera chain bhi
Stars: 3.5
+ Honest narrative
– Raw and disjointed.
L. Ravichander.