SINCERE, WELL-CRAFTED CINEMA

Fireflies

STARRING: Rahul Khanna, Arjun Mathur, Monica Dogra, Shivani Ghai, Aadya S-edi

WRITER/D IRECTOR: Sabal Singh

Shekhawat

Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold, and a tear-dimmed tide is unleashed on the characters of this intimate character-study.

Fireflies is a well -intentioned lndie film with a clear-cut target audience. Admittedly there is an inherent pretentiousness attached to an Indian film where the characters, no matter how urbane, speak only in English Even the songs in Fireflies are in English. That's like a sonata in Sonepur me/a

Nonetheless there is a fascinating undercurrent of sensuality to the proceedings -crimson-red wine clinking in crystal glasses, diamonds rustling against silken saris, the rain splattering against high-rise windowpanes to accentuate the pain, all of this compounded by a very good -looking cast that seems to intuitively grasp the nature of the goings-on.

Fireflies is like chapters out of a dreamilywritten half-finished novel about incomplete lives

It's the story of two incompatible brothers Shiv and Rana whose lives seem to run on parallel tracks As played by

Rahul Khanna and Arjun Mathur these two brothers could be long-distance cousins of Shashi Kapoor and Amitabh Bachchan in Deewaar. Except that the script here lacks the commercia l expanse of the masala epic on sibling fights. Fireflies is an elegantly-cut nugget about sibling bonding and an unspeakable family tragedy Rahul and Arjun are fluently in friction, frequently intense and constantly in character Wonder what stops Arjun from gaining greater glory in our cinema!

Oh yes, this is a fetching film with some strikingly interesting female actors playing troubled characters who remind us that sexual relationsh ips fall apart, but family stays

The characters are mostly shot in dark hues suggesting the deep, suppressed longing that they are unable to express adequately in words. The stilted dialogues could be rationalised to that extent.

Rahul's disintegrating relationship with his upper-class wife (theatre actress Aadya Bedi, very effective) is weighed againstArjun's growing bonding with the mysterious Michelle (Monica Dogra, sensuous and self-assured).

While Rahul gets into a doomed extra-marital relationship with a former sweetheart Aila (Shivani Ghai, quite a find), his brother's relationship too heads fast to a dead end

Cinematographer Shankar Raman shoots the Arjun-Monica relationship in the nonjudgemental bustle of Bangkok creating in the alien environment a feeling of emotional panic barely concealed because well, strangers are looking.

It all comes together at the end not too satisfactorily In spite of a very weak endgame, the plot of Fireflies induces enough intrigue and mystery to keep us watching the film It may not be the greatest of drama on the conundrum of human relationships, but debutant director Sabal Singh Shekhawat gets the mood, tempo and characterisations right most of the time.

Fireflies is an imperfect film about flawed characters who disguise their spiritual ennui in tailored postures of sophistication. It's not a great film. But it's sincere and a largely well-crafted piece of cinema about fractured lives frozen in compromised relationships.

SUBHASH K JHA