Anhey gorhey da daan

A rare offering of intelligent and humane cinema. Gurvinder Singh's gentle observational style encompasses an approach in which the poetic simplicity of the visual compositions situate the characters clearly in their surroundings, while imparting an inestimable amount of dignity to their faces, their bodies, their meager words and plight. His aesthetic is simultaneously clear-eyed and mysteriously poignant, while elevating our ethical awareness effortlessly without resort to myth or moralizing. As this is Singh's first feature, the promise of a great artist whose formal excellence is fully nourished by an equally great heart is formidable, and I look forward to his achievements.

For thoughtful and reflective viewers, it is not to be missed. (Seen at MoMA/NY, August 2012)

The film is set in a village in the outskirts of Bathinda city where villagers work in the fields of the local landlord. It is a village where people are trying hard to make peace with their existence.

On a foggy winter morning, a family wakes up to the news of the demolition of a house on the outskirts of the village. Father, a silent sympathizer, joins the community in demand for justice whilst his son Melu, a rickshaw puller in the city, participates in a strike by his union. Injured and alienated, Melu spends the day quietly resting and drinking with friends in the night they debate the meaning of their existence. Both father and son are equally clueless about their futures.

The film is a powerful exploration of the daily struggles of the urban and rural workers in a Punjab; where the gap between the rich and poor is getting wider and people's hopes and aspirations for a better life are shattered.

As the director says, it is difficult to say what the film is about as it can mean different things to different people, which it should. At the surface, the film speaks about the margins where the socially repressed and exploited have been conveniently cast away. It's about a day in the lives of a family who are witnesses to the play of power equation unfolding around them. It's about silent witnesses devoid of power to change or influence the course of destiny. It's about invisible violence and desires, simmering discontent and angst that are reflected on people's faces.

The village portrayed is not the picture-perfect Bollywood village with verdant mustard fields and huge private mansions. It showcases the underbelly of caste'ism and marginalized farmers. The helplessness and angst of Dalit's in a village in Punjab is beautifully captured.

Amazing part is that most of the actors in the movie are not real actors, but real villagers of the same village where the film is shot.

The creative producer of the movie, Mani Kaul, known for critically acclaimed movies like Uski Roti (1970) & Duvidha (1974) was also mentor of the director, which is clearly reflected in his style. Mani's parting words before the director left for the shoot were: "Go beyond what you know!" and the director says, "I would start feeling dissatisfied if things were going too much according to the plan. I kept struggling with Mani's thought. Having finished the film, now I know what he meant!" Gurvinder's style doesn't share much of functional details, although the way he handles the sounds, the empty frames & the silence, is incredible. This is what would probably alienate him from taking the film to a wider audience. He seems happier experimenting with the notions of time and space within a filmic narrative.

Anhey Ghorey Da Daan is nevertheless a rewarding watch for those who are open to not treading the beaten path!

I saw this film as part of the Rotterdam Film Festival 2012. The film director was present and started his introduction by telling us that India produces many films per year, mostly for the masses, of which at most 10% can be deemed of the "art house" category. He attended film school not long ago, and always wanted to develop his own style. And I can say upfront that he did with great success.

He spent five years in the Punjab region, while himself coming from an other province. He preferred not to shoot with "actors" (=people with this title on their business card), but employed local people instead. He had to specifically instruct them to behave normally (=do not act).

These amateur actors were beautifully portrayed (in more than one meaning of the word) by virtue of long close ups and also long silences. This perfectly blends in with the way of living in this region. The same can be said about the overall slow pacing of this film. Even a still scene can create its own sound and tell what's going on, if I may quote the director. It leaves the concept of time open for interpretation by the viewer (the story can cover days, weeks, whatever).

Plenty of local color was thrown in as a bonus. We witnessed some colorful, creative cursing by one of the women in two different instances. Also, a quote from one of the men is worth recalling: "When God gave wisdom, we were overlooked". The general attitude of the locals is to accept their fate, having the feeling that they can't (won't) do much about it.

As a matter of fact, as told by the director, life is becoming very difficult for the common man in that region. We saw a few men with money and power, very few I assume, and the rest tries to make ends meet but is bound to fail eventually. By the way: I could not help myself wondering what all these people do for a living.

All in all, a perfect inside view in a part of the world we never see. The average Bollywood movie provides us with a very different view on the country, and this film is a welcome exception. I gave he maximum score for the audience award when leaving the theater.

Gurvinder Singh's Punjab is unlike what we have ever seen.Its very far removed from the yellow mustard fields with farmers doing the Bhangra. The mustard fields do crop up here, but only as a reference to a few stalks of mustard which have been denied to an old woman who works the whole day in the rich landlords cotton farms.She is accused of ruining the farm and comes home angry and bitter.She tells her husband that in the old days they used to give some mustard stalks away to the poor and get blessed in return.But this film is not about de-glamorizing Punjab.

Gurvinder Singh makes a film based on a 1976 novel by Gurdial Singh but the story of a low- caste family forever condemned to a life of hardship and marginalization remains fresh even today.Punjab is that shiny state where the green revolution made ordinary farmers very rich and industrialists much richer.I clearly remember a geography class in school when our teacher told us a big secret,"The farmers in Punjab have TV's and refrigerators, some even have cars".In the mid eighties of India when such things were not even ubiquitous among the urban middle class this was a big revelation.This was confirmed in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge where we were treated to an agrarian utopia which was only disturbed by a benign form of male chauvinism.

Anhe Ghore Da Daan bears the stamp of Mani Kaul who along with Kumar Sahani tried to start a formalist approach to cinema against an overwhelmingly Bollywoodised backdrop and punctuated by the Indian new wave of which Satyajit Ray was the standard bearer.Mani Kaul's teacher was Ritwick Ghatak but Kaul decided to make films very unlike his beloved teachers.Instead he turned to the French master Robert Bresson for inspiration and made the path breaking Uski Roti(1970) which left the audiences angry and alienated with its stubborn refusal to tell a story, communicating entirely with its measured images and mood.

Melu Singh at a Dhaba which is nothing like the ones that people in luxury cars stop at for a taste of Punjab. As the film begins we see a house being demolished.It belongs to a low-caste landless farm worker.The land on which it stood had been tilled by him for decades but the landlord has now sold it to an industrialist.An old man who lives with his wife and two young children watches the tragedy with sad haunted eyes.His face speaks for the whole community which has nowhere to turn to.They form a group and go to the upper caste village headman house where they are reminded of their place in society. In fact they belong to the lower castes that have won reservation in government jobs.None of the characters here have produced civil servants.There appears to be a further class divide among them, ever harder to surmount. When we see him first, the face of this old man(Mal Singh) lying on a cot, his long white hair not yet tied into a neat turban,with a blank distant look, tells a story that does not need a narrative.

We meet his two sons, living in the city apparently away from this class divide. Melu(Samuel John Sabastien) on which the film centers is a rickshaw puller, his backbreaking work is numbing him.His two fellow rickshaw pullers point out the meaninglessness of his life, he does not drink while they find succor in a bottle of hooch.There is a sequence of great cinematic power at the end where that liquor also does not work and the dream of a better life is completely shattered.All this is suggested not with dialogue which is very sparse here, but with visuals that the director and cinematographer(Satya Rai Nagpaul) create.The actors belong to the Bressonian school which believes in performances where the last trace of acting has been drained out and all we see is a real person in a situation.

This film manages to convey a multitude of issues while quietly observing a mundane slice of everyday life in the lowest echelons of Punjab society.His method is to transport us to a place and a situation and give us the time and space to interact with that reality.Mr Singh does not rush us, does not give us any message.He makes a film that is more a philosophical mediation on the medium of cinematic art than a story.That the cruel realities of the partition, crony capitalism, unequal growth, substance abuse, hopelessness and the absurdity of a caste divide are evident, is proof that if we observe these characters closely we will come head to head with these grim realities.

The faces of these women tell the story of centuries of oppression. Punjab was the worst affected after partition along with Bengal and an entire generation had to rebuild their life from scratch.The land reform that were carried out produced its own set of winners and losers. Today Punjab is one of the richest Indian states but like the rest of India it contains myriad realities.I visited the Golden Temple a few years back and despite being an atheist was struck by how serene and pure the place felt. Anhe Ghore Da Daan reminded me once again that no matter how noble the intentions of the founder of any religion, the practitioners remain solidly human and their interpretation of the religion a matter of convenient logic.This film soars much above its fertile material and is a genuine human document set to the music of supreme art of cinema. Satvinder Singh is a brave new voice of Indian cinema.

#The film is available on DVD in India in the Cinemas Of India series produced by NFDC.

@ The title of the film refers to the age old custom of asking for alms in the name of a blind horse during a lunar eclipse by members of the lower castes in Punjab.

Published on my blog mostlycinema.com