Asha Jaoar Majhe

I chanced upon the Iranian indie filmmaker Keywan Karimi's short film "Zan Va Shohar Karega" (The Adventure of the Married Couple) a few years ago. In spite of the obvious likeness, I prefer Aditya Vikram Sengupta's directorial debut.

The beauty of this film lies in the little things - the poetic collage of images ordinary lives are made of; artfully rendered and helmed with nuanced realism - every frame relatable, every moment pure, doused in everything Bengali.

Basabdatta Chatterjee outdoes the ever so brilliant Ritwick Chakraborty, so gracefully subtle in her expressions.

Arthouse films tend to be pretentious, mostly unappealing to us commoners, trying too hard to please global audiences. Asha Jaoar Majhe is a rarity; an unequivocal feat of grounded filmmaking.

In this dialogue less movie, Aditya Sengupta depicts grim condition and awkward work shifts of a married couple. In this 74 minutes film everything is visually narrated with precision from the beautiful yet crowded back lanes of Kolkata to their struggle. "There is an internal beauty in silence": Asha Jaoar Majhe definitely symbolizes that. Asha Jaoar Majhe won two national awards in 2014. The film is available on Prime Video. Also watch Aditya's another minimal gem "Jonaki" on Netflix.

"Asha Jawar Majhe" or "Labour of Love" is as much an ode to a recession hit Calcutta as much it is an eulogy of the rigors in a lower middle class couple's struggle for existence,yet united by love for few treasured moments in a day. The film is exclusively a silent film, yet more eloquent than any of its recent contemporaries. The brilliance and scale of the film can only be matched in recent times by a "Ship of Theseus" and rightfully it has won accolades over the International Festivals.

The viewer who goes in search of a story will be thoroughly disappointed as this is just a portrayal of a day in the life of this struggling couple essayed beautifully by Ritwick and Basabdutta, both working in alternate shifts to make their ends meet. But they are not love-lost, as they wait with honed self control and relentless patience for the early morning hours of union,when he returns from work and she is about to set out to. The "labour of love" is thus not fruitless, but is the strong bond that ties this couple,estranged for most of the day,owing to a debilitating economy.

It is totally a Director's film,executed brilliantly by the helmsman Aditya Vikram Sengupta, as his camera pans the North Calcutta suburbs, reminiscent of erstwhile opulence,yet now symbolic of a moribund state,through a poet's eye. Kudos to him for handling the plot with such sensitivity , as even the director had to undergo a Labour of Film Making to make his first film. The use of light and shadow reminds of Ray's "Aporajito" and the sound arrangement is nothing short of brilliant. But there are certain unexplained jump cuts and long stills too, flaws which doesn't remain with the viewer after the wonderful ending of the film. Ritwick has indeed become the "Irrfan Khan" of Tollywood in recent times and no one could play this role more convincingly.The vacant stare, the unhurried way he carries out his daily mundane routine, and yet the wait for the Golden moments of the day underplaying in his eyes is brilliant. He shows that one can portray despair without a sigh. Basabdutta complements him on all grounds. A final word for the sound arrangement as the film would have been incomplete without its brilliant execution,specially when there's no dialogue. It is a must watch for cine enthusiasts,poets and others who have an ebbing poet in them amidst the harsh realities of life. Looking forward to more such classics from the director in future.

The movie tests your patience a lot, and at times you wonder whether anything is going to happen at all, and perhaps that is the exact reaction the director wants to evoke from his audience. The pacing is slow, there are no dialogues , the story is told through background noise and unbelievably accurate shots of two people doing monotonous household chores. The camera-work is intriguing, unusual and beautiful in general- the camera often zooms in and lingers for a while on seemingly mundane things that are generally not highlighted on the big screen - soap bubbles in a bucket, a rooftop antenna , the clothesline .. And all this obsession with detail, the slow pacing , the impassive faces suddenly make sense in the last 5 minutes. The entire movie is a buildup for the ending, which is beautiful . It makes you want to watch the movie all over again.

A movie that teaches us the value of love, teaches us how a couple can manage to find love in adverse circumstances in an age where we file divorces even if our food habits do not match.

In this age where love is rare and relationships do not last a year, the movie is like a commandment sent via the hands of this new director on block. This is a movie that doesn't tell a new story but stays with you many days after you have watched it, like the advice you got from your father in your childhood but never cared to take them seriously.

The movie spans for a single day, but tells the story of a lifetime. A story where both the husband and wife works but in opposite shifts of a day, and find time for each other only for five minutes in the whole day when the husband returns from work and the wife has to leave for her workplace. This precious five minutes (captured splendidly on screen like) seem like a beautiful dream to them, in the otherwise sordid and solitary routine of their daily life.