Cat Sticks

Cat Sticks by director Ronnie Sen is a black and white film based in contemporary Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal. The film doesn't have a storyline in the sort of way like requiem for a dream, but is a more candid look in the lives of who are drug addicts. There are scenes which are stark cold and ironic like the father who does dope in front of their son, while the TV is singing some old bollywood song. He later after having put his son to bed, goes our trafficking and looking for money. Next we have the middle aged heroin dealer who is part of the narcotics and customs but sells them to college students. They have an almost satirical conversation, with many insider jokes and topics including the brutality of the police on suspects. And we have protagonist figure two friends who settle in an abandoned flight to smoke heroin. There story has a wider prtion that the other two.

I felt the characters lacked depth and were in essence following one scene to the other in apt repetition of their drug abuse. The camera had better coverage on the whereabouts and obfuscates certain alleys trying to capture a noirish atmosphere.

Though uncertain with their lives they live on the edges of drug abuse and poverty, struggling with losses. The film somehow doesn't make the audience engage to their inner feelings, so it is hard to feel any sympathy for them. Overall an honest effort.

There a scene in the film where two men, completely high, perform what can only be called a poetic dance as they try to find places on each other to jab their needles into. It's one of the most beautiful, moving scenes I've seen in a long while. The film is full of the feebleness and vulnerability of users, the innocence and childlike state of mind and being of users, the users in this film are grown up men but also lost little boys, who you want to go give a hug to every once in a while. Even murder is accidental because they're not even really aware. Everything is an impulse untempered by a rational reigning in. Performances were stellar. Saurabh, with the way he uses language and his eyes, conveying so much, tanmay as the man in the lungi, so at ease with that lungi that it remains in your mind hours later, the way he deals with it. Ronny and his last ditch effort to save himself and his friend who lands up seeing a man die as a crow leaves his head, the religious ritual both mocked and completed at once. Shreya Dev Dube has done an absoluteky beautiful job with the camera. An artist. Ronnie Sen, looking forward to more! Loved the film.

I dint know much about technical aspect of film making. But this flick seriously took me deep into the lives of drug addicts of Bengal. The rain, the night , and these few people are not interested into anything else other than getting high quickly. Movie is all black and white, and suites the theme perfectly. Multiple story lines go in parallel and are quite good in the beginning. But i feel somehow the last 20 mints of the film was just okish, didn't really help the film much story wise but maybe that what the director wanted to tell, if you are an addict, nothing moves, grows in your life. You are lost getting happy when high into a dreamy state whereas the real life deteriorates.

I would give it 6.5 stars for the brave attempt and would look for future works of the director.