Sunday, April 06, 2014
Jal
Water Woes
Jal takes up an issue that should concern everybody, if it doesn’t already--
the water shortage that has started killing animals and will soon affect human
life in parts of the country (and the world).
But Girish Malik’s film set in the arid Rann of Kutch, cannot settle on
the right tone. It’s neither serious enough to be disturbing, not interesting
enough to be engaging. It tries for a mix of exotic and realistic, which
simply doesn’t work. It also throws too many strands into the air, and can’t
get a proper hold on any.
Bakka (Purab Kohli) is a water diviner in a tiny, parched desert
village. The inhabitants claim to be starving, but are dressed in
gleaming ethnic costumes and all look well-fed. For a film taking a
mostly realistic approach,Jal glosses over details like how the
villagers make a living. They drive chhakdas, talk about blue
CDs, but there is no evidence of that kind of progress.
When a foreigner (Saidah Jules) arrives to study flamingos, she is
shocked to find many dead chicks. She is able to pull enough strings to
get a government team to fetch a huge drill to find fresh water for the birds,
but is curiously apathetic towards the villagers—maybe because all they do is
leer at her and make crass comments.
In between the water woes, there’s a love story between Bakka and a girl
from an enemy village (Kirti Kulhari), the machinations of her thwarted suitor
(Mukul Dev) and the heartbreak of his childhood sweetheart (Tannishtha
Chatterjee). A very contrived plot twist hurtles Bakka into tragedy.
No matter how much one tries to empathise with the characters, Malik’s
treatment just never manages to draw the viewer into the desperate world of
these neglected villagers. The location is captured beautifully, though, even
if it’s all gleaming and touristy with CGI twisters and storms showing up at
regular intervals.
Labels: Cinemaah
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