A Death in the Gunj

This is a little gem of a movie, with pitch perfect casting, excellent pacing and very competent direction.

The movie takes you to a world of languid indolence as an extended family vacations at a once grand but now somewhat derelict Anglo-Indian hamlet. There are little stories within, mostly pivoting around Kalki as the coquette - glimpses of illicit lust; and unrequited longing.

But in the middle of this happy dysfunction, there are jarring moments that tighten the little knot of dread-filled anticipation at the bottom of your heart. The title promised you a death and the opening scene reinforced that promise. You don't know who and you don't know why, you only know it's coming.

Femme fatale and a sensitive young man. The story of my life.

In a resort town in 1970s India a sensitive young man, Shutu, is recovering from a series of traumas. He runs into the wrong family and the wrong woman. Even more unfortunate for him, spirits from the past inhabit people and take care of unfinished business.

India isn't all Bollywood. There is much more to the country and to its film industry. This film dares to think outside the box. I love how it weaves nature, color, song, spirits, eclectic people, and foreign myths into a compelling story. It is based on a true short story by Mukul Sharma.

Today I saw "Death in the Gunj"

It is a slow movie. But once you have patience and if you can soak into its characters - The Bangla bourgeois culture, their liberalism, their talks, the way they look and behave (making the casting perfect); and if you can sustain yourself absorbed till the end the impact of the movie is not good but Overwhelming... Especially for those who have a sensitive soul, who can feel deep down the anguish and pain of a single individual.

Here the single individual is Shutu (Vikram Massey) whose character and psyche is known to us through peeling of each layer through small exchanges of dialogues and incidences. Shutu lost his father when he was 7 years, he does not have a good relation with his mother, who always scolds him, he is bad in studies, and has failed, he is bullied by his friends and talked down and even beaten by this elder brother. He is simple, shy, incoherent, child-like and finds solace and innocent friendship with his niece Tani (Arya Sharma) during a small gathering over a week with family and friends at a hill station house.

Events unfold in such a way that Shutu is initiated to sex by Mimi (Kalki Koechlin) who just wants to have fun and get over her love for Vikram (Ranvir Shorey) who is marrying someone else. By the end of the movie things do not work out for Shutu who is ignored, forgotten by everyone and shunned even by the little girl Tani. Yet with love in his eyes he pins his hopes on Mimi who ignores his feelings and advices him to concentrate on studies and life (sounds so familiar). It is a psychological take on a simple boy Shutu who is driven to death, but unfolding of events – where everyone is unconsciously selfish (as a way of life) and happy with what one has in life – except Shutu, who feels lonely, ignored and useless (even being used by that little girl).

While coming out of the theatre one feels, if once, someone – the little girl Tani, or Mimi would have held Shutu's hand and consoled him, would have given him strength and hope to live life.

It is a great debut of Konkana Sen Sharma as a director. All the actors and actresses have acted superbly. Special mention of Vikram Massey as Shutu who lives his character's flaws like real. The slow and lingering shots are exquisite and a treat on the eye. The detailing is perfect. Music is appropriate with mix of a couple folk tunes and lingering sadness of violin.

This movie is recommended for the typical arty type sensitive movie goers – who want to see good different cinema - This is the one!

(Rating 7.5 out of 10)

What a debut for Konkona Sen Sharma!!! A death in a gunj is a kind of movie that all along has your attention. Apart from the star cast that includes the likes of Ranvir Shorey, Om Puri, Tanuja & Kalki, the movie also has a unique screenplay.It's a kind of thriller which also has emotional side to it. The background score sync completely to the genre. Surely a must watch...

The ground for a death is set already when the scene opens in a city trembling in peak winters. The tired sun that cannot decide if it wants to rise, the insects already stocking their nests and ready to hibernate, the orchestra of cicadas that blends easily in the suspicious eerie silence of the evenings, the absence of roses and the long purple nights. In such a set-up the only noise that rips the slumber of the forest apart is the loud laughter of a happy family. The perfect family with rotund bellies feasting on meat and wine, slyly rubbing bodies against each other in jest, and like every other family, unable to keep track of the share of love every member is receiving.

It's easy to feel left behind in a world disheveled by adults. Where youth is thought to be coped up with only by a compensatory adrenaline rush, sex is but a form of hospitality, and children and servants are defamed outcasts for just not being alike. Amidst these artificialities, humble "Shuttu" draws dreamy figures in his diary, takes interest in dead moths and the funeral of ants, befriends his six year old niece Tani and vehemently resists metamorphosis. His brother Nandu like most elder siblings, puts him through helpful tests to man him up(driving, planchettes, kabbadi) but Shuttu is already a man with his weak arms but a muscular heart that can carry immeasurable weight. He is the re-incarnate of Franz Kafka, sniffing for traces of love in his dead father's sweaters and his seductive muse's white ankles and the melancholy of his wailing mother. The film brings back to my aching mind a nostalgia of theatrical plays, where the characters were the fodder and story but a resource, rather than the other way around. Nandu's wife, "Bonnie" and mother,"Anupama" are an accurate reflection of the legacy of homemakers; dreamless eyes, unquestioning obeisance, and principled Elizabeth Bennets always in- charge of too much to be done. Vikram(Ranbir Shorey) is the perennially candescent splinter and Mimi(Kalki) is the moth dancing in its flame. O.P(Om Puri's character) has drunk blood-shot eyes and a jovial persona which often confuse his grand-daughter for a tortoise and dismiss the bruises under Shuttu's eyes as child's play. Tani is a young and curious fluttering butterfly who just broke out of her cocoon. Maniya and Manjuri, the domestic helps, are observers of the building up of crime which in this movie, is neither an accident or event, nor a well-hatched conspiracy, but a sudden condensation of reality.

The timeline of growing up is riddled with tough milestones to surpass. The degradation of parent's narrative from "are you facing a problem we don't know about" to " what is the problem with you", bodily changes, the political intrusion of lust and control in relationships and the devaluation of childhood dreams which are too much for a heart which still has not grown anesthetic to pangs of betrayal and dishonesty. As Shuttu tries to brush through these and more, he watches little Tani with wet eyes who would soon be stepping into this war too. A war which is endless and perpetual, called adulthood, where the temporary campsite on the battleground is supposed to be your permanent home. Where defeat is inevitable but the contest is about who can survive longer.

With this debut, Konkana Sensharma blurs the lines between a book and a movie, unveils how modern art is about context rather than content, undresses the guilty faces of families where it is surprisingly easy for someone to not matter at all. By the end, I wished if the movie could be longer and I was given more time to build intimacy with the characters of Mimi or Vikram to know what went into the making of their lustful, unconquerable and ambitious hearts. But alas, a movie could only be a window to another world and not a door, an excerpt of an unending saga which is still happening behind the closed walls of silent homes and secluded hostel rooms, a crime that is taking place without any blood dripping which no one knows about now, no one will figure out the reason behind, but everyone will blame themselves for.