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Magazine
The visual and the aural
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Ram Madhwani's "Let's Talk" is making waves in the film world. S. THEODORE BASKARAN looks at what's behind its success.
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Focusing on the tangled web of relationships ... a scene from the film.
A NEW crop of English films made in India is creating an impact around the world. The National Award for Best Director that Aparna Sen won this year for "Mr. And Mrs. Iyer" is symptomatic of their arrival. There was another film that galvanised viewers when it opened in a few cities recently — "Let's Talk" by Ram Madhwani, an independent filmmaker from Mumbai.
When I saw the movie for the first time, I was impressed. To get a better idea, I watched it again. My gut reaction was confirmed. It had the stamp of originality and promise. I say "promise" because this is Madhwani's debut. He demonstrates a grasp of the grammar of cinema and displays a distinct style, thereby extending the frontiers of cinema. Often young filmmakers in the debut films tend to repeat their mentor's style and thus perpetuate cinematic conventions. Unfortunately, this is what is happening in Tamil cinema.
"Let's Talk" is intense, contemporary and sincere. It deals with universal issues of relationship and focuses on the tangled web we weave in confronting these issues or in avoiding them, specifically in the marital situation. Isn't there a constant power struggle in the realm of love? Ram Madhwani has picturised this with a lot of drama and deconstructs it, as it were, for us to see. This is the magic of cinema, its power. His mastery over the craft of cinema is evidenced in the manner he has tightly woven the narrative, which in this case is a non-linear one.
Radhika, after eight years of marriage, has an affair with an interior decorator. When the film opens, she is confronting her pregnancy. Should she tell Nikhil, her husband? How will he react? There are several possibilities and each is depicted on the screen. There could be disbelief, jealousy, pain ... As these imagined reactions unfold one after another; the screen becomes a magical looking glass. To keep the focus in target, the filmmaker has minimised the characters. There are only two — the woman and the man. Two other important characters — the daughter and Krish, the lover — never appear on the screen and are referred to only in the conversation. While the movie is original in conception, I was reminded of "Scenes From A Marriage" By Bergman.
The story itself appears less important than the manner in which it has been told. The filmmaker takes a cue from a classical art form, the thumri, where one line is repeated with each rendition being repeated and the listener sits enthralled by the subtle variations. The imagined reactions of a cuckolded husband are like a thumri line; they come on, one after another, tormenting him into the final denouement. The line that is repeated as off screen music in the film is "Balamwa, tum kya jano preet? (O My beloved, what do you know of love?)" This device leaves the viewer with an unforgettable cinema experience.
The two main artistes — Maima Katrak as Radhika and Boman Irani as Nikhil — put in a searing performance. Though there are a lot of spoken words in the film, Irani, by his body language, tone and modulations in delivering his lines, keeps the viewers riveted. As the film proceeds, he chisels out the character of Nikhil in all its dimensions. There is much dialogue but the filmmaker deftly balances between the visual and aural. Much of the action takes place inside a room but the claustrophobic effect is skilfully neutralised by dynamic camera positions. One is also struck by the manner in which Madhwani handles colours. This is one aspect that is often neglected in Indian cinema, except may be by very few filmmakers such as Kumar Shahani. Remember "Dwidha"?
Many filmmakers from the world of advertising have enriched Indian cinema... Ray, Shyam Benegal, Dharmaraj, Rajiv Menon... the list goes on. The practice of packing a lot of cinematic details in the frames in a short time, hones their narrative skills. This comes in handy when they go on to make feature films. Madhwani is the latest in the list.
Unfortunately, he could not bid for any Government of India award as the movie was made digitally. Films made on videotapes or digitally cannot be entered for any national award, not yet, as the rules stand today. However his film has not gone recognised. It has won the Gollapudi Srinivas National Award for 2002. Instituted in 1996, the award commemorated the memory of G. Srinivas, a young filmmaker of Hyderabad who died in an accident while on location. The news is that Madhwani is already at work on his next film "Resurrecting Ravana".
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