A Decent Arrangement

I'm not one to write reviews but man this film got under my skin. Okay, so lets start with the positives. This is a well made and craft film. Chandigarh is shot with a gorgeous and attentive naturalism that really evokes the rhythms of an Indian city and its characters. The supporting cast offer a nice range of ideas and performances, providing some kind of dressing to the naive insufferable idiot that we are supposed to somehow relate to. The main character is a man, or just boy, that wanders aimlessly from place to place, saying nothing of worth about anything, living a life with no seeming skills or talents, languishing in tired cliches that have no meaning. Don't get me wrong, this is a perfect example of many unbearable boobs i have encountered in India, indeed maybe my anger stems from how i see echoes of myself in him, especially before life throws some spanners in the works. This is also not a slight at the actor. If the intention was to make the most vacuous and kinda robotic symbol of personality devoid westerner, spoon-fed on tv into a passive nothing, then its perfect. I mean for heavens sake, he can't even describe the book moby dick, or say what he likes to write about. The most tell bit of the film is when he's ask by his dad just to do something for his home video, and reliably enough, he just stands there with this kinda baby like seriousness, a mind lost in a bland confusion of dissatisfaction. Just learn to juggle, or play a sport, or just something. Please! Before you suck the life out of that talented Indian girl, who practically offers excitement and life on a plate. Anyways, rant over.

I found the characters completely relatable and loved their conversations. Watching A Decent Arrangement was not only entertaining, but it encouraged me to reflect on my own life and the complexities of love and relationships. I appreciated the characters search for companionship and adventure both literally and figuratively. It's the kind of movie I could watch more than once and it would give me a feeling of coziness, yet also remind me of the (sometimes) life long search to be fulfilled and how that can leave us feeling uneasy. It's that combination of cozy moments and the uneasiness that drive us. Some of the funnier moments were between Preeti and Ashok. A strength of this film is the character's portrayal of awkwardness and tradition. There are touching moments that emerge from the interplay between the two.