The brilliance of Masaan lies in its writing and writers, Neeraj Ghaywan and Varun Grover. Masaan is wholesome, some people even consider it as a masterpiece of the portrayal of human emotions exactly the way they are. Masaan uses two stories and two lead protagonists from each, to tell its tale.
In Masaan closure comes to both the protagonists when least expected or rather in form of death and moving on. Deepak (Vicky Kaushal) and Shalu (Shweta Tripathi) fall in love with each other instantly after a few meetings irrespective of their financial positions and castes. Soon, Shalu dies in a bus accident and ends up in the same cremation ground where Deepak works, this incident sends Deepak to a state of shock and trauma, all he is left with is Shalu’s ring, the last memory of hers. At one point of time in the film, Deepak explains his state of mind, “Sala, yeh dukh khatam kyu nahi hota”( when will this pain come to an end).
In an interview, Varun Grover had talked about how this scene was written differently and how Kaushal had indulged himself so much while enacting the scene that has led to the ultimate and beautiful improvisation of the scene. In another scene one evening while Deepak is on a boat, in the rage of the situation he throws the ring into the waters, and jumps instantly to get the ring back, but is unable to find it.
The human dilemma of holding on and letting go of something finds its most realistic portrayal in this scene. Soon after Deepak feels released from a burden, memory of a person long gone, that he had been trying to hold on to. Closure finally comes to Deepak in form of moving on, letting go of a memory, a person that has burnt into ashes.
Devi (RichaChadda), one fine morning is found in an intimate and vulnerable position with her boyfriend (Piyush) by some cops. The cops see this as a perfect situation to get some bribe out of them. In the heat of the moment Piyush, too scared to face the consequences, commits suicide. Even though Devi is able to come out from the trauma of the death, she is never able to come out from the ocean of guilt of Piyush’s suicide. Soon Devi decides to overcome this guilt by meetingPiyush’s parents, here the scene is written so beautifully that even though nothing is shown except Devi entering the house and the wide shot of the house, the audience still understands the happenings that take place inside the scene.
The director here wanted to give us an insight into Devi’s feelings, of how scared she is to face Piyush’s parents, and so he never shows what happens inside the house than just using a wide shot of the house and sounds of utensils banging against each other. Just after this Devi breaks down while sitting on a ghat, and closure finds her in the form of breaking out from the guilt she had been living in for so long and moving on because she has met Piyush’s parents who consider her responsible for his death, what worse could happen to her?
Text by: Sreyoshi Sil, IBTN9
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