Dotage dramas

Movies like Mukti Bhawan and Pa Paandi are essential lessons in filial responsibilities

Most of the Indian movies centring on people above 60 are invariably treacly. Baghban is one such example. In the West, this kind of cinema tends to be far more interesting and have more dimensions to the characters. Amour, 45 Years, Le Weekend are some of the recent examples that crop up in my mind. However, this year within the space of a week, two movies have released that are lovely exceptions to this rule.
 
Dhanush's Pa Paandi is a heartstring plucker about the eponymous character who is leading a fairly serene life after calling it quits as a stunt master at the Tamil movie industry. However, his corporate executive of a son (Raghavan) finds his father's good samaritan antics as embarrassing.
 
Realising that he might be a burden on his son's family, he goes on a road trip to meet his first love. The final one-third of the movie where the aging couple rekindles the fire of its asphyxiated relationship are Pa Paandi's most uplifting moments. Props to Dhanush for thinking of Revathi as Poonthendral. Her wizened visage but sprightly gait infuses some much needed spring into the movie's faltering narrative in the second half.
 
The usage of technology has been weaved in deftly to show that hearts never age. In one sequence, the couple is exchanging texts on Facebook and Rajkiran's heart goes aflutter like a teenager while he's expecting a message from his lady love.
 
It's a pleasant surprise that Dhanush chose such a mature subject as his directorial debut. While Pa Paandi is life affirming, Shubhashish Bhutiani's Mukti Bhawan is death affirming but is equally beautiful. The movie's about a man in his 70s who thinks his end is nigh because he has an ominous dream recurring and decides to live his last days by the pious ghats of Varanasi. His son, torn between family and professional life, relents and takes him to the eponymous place. Lalit Behl as the geriatric, fatalistic father and Adil Hussain as his obedient son deserve all the acting gongs next year. Mukti Bhawan is a perfect example that artists hit their strides in their own sweet time. While 25-year-old Bhutiani did a Xavier Dolan by showing us how much he understands the human condition, it's a sight for my sore eyes that Behl has become a proper movie actor after 65.
 

As the cunning father in Titli he showed his acting chops but in a full-fledged role as Daya, he showed what kind of experience one brings to the big screen after spending years on stage and small screen. Nanvindra Behl is an absolute natural too as the woman who has been at the same place for more than 15 years waiting for her clarion call from the purported heaven. Cinematographers Michael McSweeney and David Huwiler are such fiends for light that the movie's most unbearably touching moments exist over a fading sun by the Ganges.
 
There's a beautiful long shot where Hussain's wife (Geetanjali Kulkarni in pristine form carried over from court) asks him how many days he'll be gone for, while applying moisturiser before going to sleep. He snaps at her that he doesn't know exactly when his father will die. I can't recall an Indian movie that was ever so flippant about impending death as a necessary nuisance. That's why Mukti Bhawan is such an important movie. It joins the rare club of recent movies with aged people dictating the mise en scène like Natasamrat, Belaseshe and Thithi.
 
Even though I was underwhelmed by Thithi, I couldn’t ignore the fact that Raam Reddy hit the sweet spot of father-son relationship where acrimony rules reign. Mukti Bhawan has more poignancy attached to it when it comes to the father-son conversations. The school teacher of a dad is still upset that his son, who had it in him to be a real poet is instead an actuarial executive. The son hisses back that the father was a martinet and he had to suppress his creative output.
 
Dhanush goes a step ahead and in the latter half of the movie, the son cries out to a colleague that one wouldn't know the importance of a parent until he or she disappears. You gotta love it when cinema tells you the gospel truth.

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jagannath.jamma@bsmail.in