cine TALK

UNSCRIPTED, TROUBLING, THOUGHT-PROVOKING

S Durga

STARRING: Rajshree Despande, Kannan Nayar

DIRECTOR: Sanal Sasidharan

HHHHH

The rst 15 minutes of this jolting experiment with truth and nails seems completely unrelated to the rest of the lm.

This is what you get when there is no formal screenplay. S Durga (S by the way, stands for ‘Sexy’ but shhhh!) was shot over one night on a barren highway with no script. The lm is a marvel of improvisation. Director Sanal Sasidharan is not afraid to plunge into the abyss of the unknown as he explores the sexual dynamics of caste, gender and religious discrimination on a scarily dark desolate stretch of a road less travelled.

In some unexpected way, the highway becomes a metaphor for the sociocultural imbalances in our society where the bullies often posing as custodians of the country’s moral values take over the destiny of ordinary citizens.

And so it happens with the couple Durga (Rajshree Despande) and Kabeer (Kannan Nayar) who are on the run.

The girl is Hindu and North Indian. And the boy is a Muslim from Kerala. Yup, this is the forbidden frightening world of ‘love jihad’ as seen through the eyes of a director who suffers with the couple and is able to transmute their feeling of growing dread to the audience.

As the couple hitches a ride with four sinister ‘strangers’ (billed simply as ‘strangers’), the intuitively improvised narrative gathers its cumulative strength by letting the couple’s destiny hang in abeyance. We never know till the end what will happen to them. When we leave the couple, we are given no assurance that they will be safe from predators and perverts. But we do know that the strangers who have given them a ride, are taking them for a ride that is most likely end in a horrible crime. Will the girl be raped? Will they be murdered? Or will the couple be robbed and allowed to escape with their lives?

As the scriptless voyage into the unknown reaches an end, you will nd yourself sending up a prayer for Durga - who is sexy because she is not doing what sexy people normally do in lms, namely act wounded vulnerable and hysterical under stress - and Kabeerwho is Muslim and in the company of his Hindu soulmate on a desolate highway… can it get any scarier? Can we ever hope for a balanced social order when two young adults can’t feel safe together?

S Durga is not an easy lm to watch. Its aura of uncertainty makes

LIGHT FILM, STRONG PERFORMANCES

Tumhari Sulu

STARRING: Vidya Balan, Manav Kaul, Neha Dhupia, Malishka Mendonza

DIRECTOR: Suresh Triveni

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Tumhari Sulu is the story of Sulochana Dubey aka Sulu (Vidya Balan), a middleclass housewife with an indefatigable spirit who is in the constant pursuit of excelling and winning contests and competitions, which give her immense satisfaction. Perhaps subconsciously, it stems from the fact that she is Class 12 fail as her banker sisters and father constantly remind her.

Sulu, as she is fondly called, is always eager to participate in contests and win - whether it is a night lamp or a pressure cooker. Her enthusiasm and con dence keep her going and her middle-class humdrum life does not deter her from giving these a shot.

It is on one such occasion that she comes across the announcement for an RJ hunt and sets about pursuing it. The lm’s main body revolves around how Sulu becomes a popular RJ, on a night show, tastes success and yet, faces ak at home.

Director Suresh Triveni manages to create the middle-class milieu complete with Sulu, her husband Ashok (Manav Kaul), a manager in a small-time mill and their 11-year-old son, Pranav, to perfection.

Whether it is Ashok’s constant bickering with the TV company for having sold him a faulty piece and thus seeking replacement or Sulu’s family giving her advice to leave the RJ job at night, are all palpable instances that the audience can fully relate to.

A performance-oriented light-hearted lm, the treatment in some parts however is a tad amateurish. While the rst half establishes Sulu, her spirited personality and her secret longing to prove herself, the second half drags and, at times, lays undue emphasis on unnecessary trivia, which makes for tedious viewing. A lot of the situations seem forced and trite, as if to create some drama.

Vidya Balan shines as the effervescent, determined, yet vulnerable

Sulu. She is endearing with her simplicity and innocence as a middle-class housewife, who unabashedly asks for a TV instead of a pressure cooker as she has already got one.

Ashok (Manav Kaul) excels as the loving husband, who willingly plays second ddle to his wife, supporting her in her realising her dreams. A complete natural, he effortlessly slips into the role of a middle-class husband and brings the right element of subtlety to his character.

Neha Dhupia as Maria, the big boss of Radio Wow, ts her role like a glove and delivers with the requisite con dence and panache.

All other actors portray their roles you uncomfortable and queasy. It is thoroughly unpredictable and frequently out of control.

The cinematographer (Prathap Joseph) goes with the couple’s fears and insecurities capturing, not the outside world that creates these negative thoughts but the emotions that ow from within the couple as they try to remain calm under stress.

The thing about S Durga is, nothing happens to the couple. Not really. Till the end they are unharmed. And the social transgressors who offer them a ride keep reassuring the couple that they are safe in their company.

But are they? Director Sanal Sasirdharan constructs a spiral of terror without actually surrendering to the rituals of horror.

Watching S Durga, you may feel at times like a wayward traveler who has lost his way while trying to escape from a situation of oppression. In doing so, the lm creates yet another level of ineluctable terror. Tyranny, oppression and persecution are inescapable in a society where children are taught to look at the opposite sex with curiosity and other religious communities with caution.

It’s not love jihad we should ght. It is the aversion to love - and not just romantic love - that needs drastic revision in our social order. S Durga, in its unrehearsed improvised way, tells us why love is such crime on the highway to hell.

Subhash K Jha

with sincerity and shine on several occasions.

The music of the lm is melodious and Ban Ja Tu Meri Rani is sweet and wellpicturised. It brings out the chemistry of the couple.

The lm has moderate production values but be tting the class of society depicted. Nothing seems incongruous.

Troy Ribeiro