Aligarh is not for an audience, whose glass is already full as nothing will help to change his or her views, leave a casual viewing of the film.
Aligarh is yet another masterpiece from director Hansal Mehta. It tells the story of a man who loved poetry and music, taught Marathi to the students of one of the premier universities of India but yet faced the wrath of a morally arrogant society for his sexual preference and ultimately his controversial death.
The long shot capturing the incident that happened in that fateful night on February 8th, 2010 sets the film in motion. Whether it is the dirty jokes which the two characters who filmed the incident is concerned or it is the production design of the rooms, the detailing of the film was done to perfection.
The film captures the loneliness of the protagonist poignantly with the help of long close ups during the moments when he is drinks alone listening to Lata Mangeskar. The way the director portrays Dr Siras' slow alienation from society is commendable.
The indifference with which this news debate of our prime time news channel are conducted was also showcased in one of the scenes in the film.
As for the actors, Manoj Bajpai never ever slips even once in his portrayal of Dr Siras. His body language when he is sitting in the court room, his demeanor when he crooning a song or his mannerism when he conversing with people, Bajpai never leaves the character behind even for a second and his portrayal possibly should earn him a national award. Rajkumar Rao also does justice to his role as the young journalist. Never going over the top even once.
Questioning the Poor response
Despite being a thoroughly researched and deftly directed film, Aligarh doesn't have many takers in the country as most of the cinema halls are running shows with most seats remaining vacated.
Not that Director Hansal Mehta is bothered about box office collections. After all, here is a man who has showed the courage to make films such as Shahid and City Lights, both gems in their own rights, tackling issues which are more often than not brushed under the carpet by Bollywood.
But yet the question remains: Why a film like Aligarh doesn't get audience? Is it because it deals with Homosexuality? Is it because our morally arrogant society fears that it will corrupt our children or challenge our perception?
Also is there a way to make such films more entertaining for the audience? I say entertaining because, the film doesn't fall short of engaging its audience, of course only if you are interested to know the truth or open to challenging your beliefs. An audience, whose glass is already full, nothing will help to change his views, leave a casual viewing of the film.
I wondered, if there was a way to take it to the audience. But after a little ponder, I came to the conclusion that there was none because such an issue-based film cannot have a song encapsulating his pangs because it will break the flow and defeat the very claustrophobia that the director wants to create around the audience, a suffocation which Dr Siras went through in those last few months of his life.
The director did try to use humour which are situational in a few places, something which a film like 'Talvaar' had done so beautifully despite tackling a tricky subject. But again 'Talvaar' was a murder mystery which had a lot of characters (Police and other people involved in investigation) to play with, whereas, here it was a case which was not even thoroughly debated or probed.
Probably, that is also the reason why the film leaves a lot of questions behind. There are scenes which leaves things open ended because perhaps in reality there has not been enough investigation to find those answers.
In fine, Aligarh is a must-watch which raises a lot of questions, not all of them have been answered. While we can't find those answers legally, probably as a society we can look at ourselves in the mirror and go beyond the labels which we put on everything and find answers to those questions with empathy and may be it will help us to shed the burden of our age-old perceptions.
Aligarh is yet another masterpiece from director Hansal Mehta. It tells the story of a man who loved poetry and music, taught Marathi to the students of one of the premier universities of India but yet faced the wrath of a morally arrogant society for his sexual preference and ultimately his controversial death.
The long shot capturing the incident that happened in that fateful night on February 8th, 2010 sets the film in motion. Whether it is the dirty jokes which the two characters who filmed the incident is concerned or it is the production design of the rooms, the detailing of the film was done to perfection.
The film captures the loneliness of the protagonist poignantly with the help of long close ups during the moments when he is drinks alone listening to Lata Mangeskar. The way the director portrays Dr Siras' slow alienation from society is commendable.
The indifference with which this news debate of our prime time news channel are conducted was also showcased in one of the scenes in the film.
As for the actors, Manoj Bajpai never ever slips even once in his portrayal of Dr Siras. His body language when he is sitting in the court room, his demeanor when he crooning a song or his mannerism when he conversing with people, Bajpai never leaves the character behind even for a second and his portrayal possibly should earn him a national award. Rajkumar Rao also does justice to his role as the young journalist. Never going over the top even once.
Questioning the Poor response
Despite being a thoroughly researched and deftly directed film, Aligarh doesn't have many takers in the country as most of the cinema halls are running shows with most seats remaining vacated.
Not that Director Hansal Mehta is bothered about box office collections. After all, here is a man who has showed the courage to make films such as Shahid and City Lights, both gems in their own rights, tackling issues which are more often than not brushed under the carpet by Bollywood.
But yet the question remains: Why a film like Aligarh doesn't get audience? Is it because it deals with Homosexuality? Is it because our morally arrogant society fears that it will corrupt our children or challenge our perception?
Also is there a way to make such films more entertaining for the audience? I say entertaining because, the film doesn't fall short of engaging its audience, of course only if you are interested to know the truth or open to challenging your beliefs. An audience, whose glass is already full, nothing will help to change his views, leave a casual viewing of the film.
I wondered, if there was a way to take it to the audience. But after a little ponder, I came to the conclusion that there was none because such an issue-based film cannot have a song encapsulating his pangs because it will break the flow and defeat the very claustrophobia that the director wants to create around the audience, a suffocation which Dr Siras went through in those last few months of his life.
The director did try to use humour which are situational in a few places, something which a film like 'Talvaar' had done so beautifully despite tackling a tricky subject. But again 'Talvaar' was a murder mystery which had a lot of characters (Police and other people involved in investigation) to play with, whereas, here it was a case which was not even thoroughly debated or probed.
Probably, that is also the reason why the film leaves a lot of questions behind. There are scenes which leaves things open ended because perhaps in reality there has not been enough investigation to find those answers.
In fine, Aligarh is a must-watch which raises a lot of questions, not all of them have been answered. While we can't find those answers legally, probably as a society we can look at ourselves in the mirror and go beyond the labels which we put on everything and find answers to those questions with empathy and may be it will help us to shed the burden of our age-old perceptions.
