Two movies of immense social value were screened at the ongoing Film Bazaar, conducted by the National Film Development Corporation – virtually this year, given the Coronavirus pandemic.
Aani Maani by Fahim Irshad explores what befalls a Muslim family in Uttar Pradesh after its only bread winner, Bhutto (Farrukh Seyer) is murdered by cow vigilantes. A movie that is minimalist in its framing and story-telling, shows a happy family of a patriarch, his wife, his son and his newly-married wife, Tarannum (Priyanka Verma). Bhutto’s divorced sister with a child also lives with them, and the small bickering between Tarannum and sister-in-law soon evaporate, when they begin to understand each other, bonded as they are by the baby. And when the beef ban comes into effect, Bhutto, who runs a shop selling the meat, faces flak. Although common sense tells him that he must change his meat to maybe chicken, his and his family’s tradition of making and selling beef kabab come in the way, ultimately spelling doom. Which of course comes after Bhutto had greased the palms of the corrupt cops, who for a while allow him to carry on with his trade,
Performed with natural ease, the actors do push a subject of immense interest (must the Government also tell us now what we are supposed to eat, one of the characters quips) that becomes all the more important in today’s times of general intolerance in society.
The other movie, Jumeli, in Bengali (sounds like an East Bengal slang) with Soumitra Chatterjee and Sadhna Hajra (playing the titular character) examines how poverty drives people to points of sheer desperation. Directed by Anumita Dasgupta, the film traces the agonising life of young Jumeli, who without her knowledge is given medicines by her rogue husband to induce abortion. The young woman’s milk is then sold by him to the needy (mothers who have insufficient milk) in his village. A string of abortions makes Jumeli weak and angry, till a benevolent doctor in a hospital finds out the truth – a revelation that for Jumeli is hard to digest. Based on a true story, the movie follows how the very poor amongst us resort to such horrific means in a country where parents even sell their own children.
(Gautaman Bhaskaran is a movie critic and author of a biography of Adoor Gopalkrishnan)
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