Seema Pahwa, who has found a place for herself in mainstream Bollywood family dramas, has coke up with her version of a family drama as her directorial debut. The large family of the late Ram Prasad (Shah) gathers in their ancestral Lucknow home till the 13th-day ceremony and rituals are done and past secrets and grievances come fuming out: of what use is death if it doesn’t release one from repressed emotions?
Anyone familiar with spread out, messy North Indian joint families will feel familiar with the beats: mourning becomes a not-so-serious thing, with everyone– sons, wives, children, and sundry relatives—reminiscing, wandering in and out of spaces made by people they don’t recognize, forced into a closeness which will disappear as soon as the ‘tehravi’ is over. When children grow and leave home and start their own families, a majority of things change.
‘Kaisehua’? This question keeps coming up, and Supriya Pathak, the wife and the mother of the many sons and daughters (Ram Prasad ki ‘fauj’, as an elder daughter bitterly terms the brood), starts to sound like a stuck record. The sons (Pathak, Pahwa, and Chattopadhyaya, who also stands in for a younger Ram Prasad, get the best sequences) wonder why their father had to take out ‘such a big loan’, the ‘bahus’ gang up on the youngest (Konkona), who stays in Mumbai and dreams of acting in films. Those jibes are familiar too: any daughter-in-law who doesn’t play by the norms of the society, and wants to live her life, her way, is fair game.
Pahwa’s post-death-of-a-family-member drama is a gentle-but-sharp portrayal of family politics, of how the ties-of-blood can sometimes get diluted but also strengthen when something like a death occurs. You notice the little touches: a neighbor whisking away her cushion from behind a mourning member (kharaab ho gaya ya kho gaya toh?), one son sporting the father’s jacket (‘amma ne Diya, he tells the sharp-eyed younger brother), who gets to use the lone bathroom first (bathrooms can lead to major disputes), and finally: what next? Who is responsible for the mother, and what will happen to the huge house in a town everyone has left?
Quite often, the film feels familiar and reminds you of situations you’ve been in. In some places, I found the good-natured ribbing turning into something not-so-good, the elements which make this kind of film stand out, dissolving a little. Anything can happen, even in the best families: when we let her be, Mrs. Ram Prasad is readying for a second inning. Yes, she is carrying forward her ‘fun-loving, piano-playing husband’s legacy, but she is also doing this on her own, for herself. Not a sorry-for-herself ready to give up on everything widow, but a wanting-to-get-on-with-it woman.
Follow IBTN9
Facebook:
