The film ‘Panga’ – 2020
Obviously, this is a good movie to watch, and a long time coming, in the Indian context. A baby step in exploring husband wife relationships and the lop-sidedness of marriages. There is right amount of humour, even if forced in some instances, in what is a very serious topic.
Kangna Ranaut is, as usual, effortless and very convincing, जब मैं तुम्हें देखती हूँ तो मुझे ख़ुशी होती हैं, जब आवि को देखती हूँ तो बहुत ख़ुशी मिलती हैं, मगर जब मैं ख़ूड को देखती हूँ तो वो ख़ुशी नहीं मिल पाती (when I look at you I feel happy, when I look at Avi I get a lot of happyness, but when I look at myself, I am not able to get the same happyness) this is the crux of the story. There are other powerful lines, बच्चा है तो कुछ भी बोलेगा? (just because he is a child, he can say anything?) but the first line is the key to the movie. It is not just happyness, but fulfilment (I am fascinated by the nuances our languages offer, ख़ुशी – in the same conversation, same context, in one sentence it mean happiness, in the next it means fulfilment). Kangna is well supported by the cast, Jassi Gill plays the hapless but sincere husband, who feels lucky to have nabbed the best girl in the world, does his best to be supportive. There are instances in the movie where he has a expression that says “WTF, I never saw it that way, but she is right.”
It is really great to see Neena Gupta, I think you can simply give her a character and she will run with it. हाँ बेटा, क्यूँ नहीं खिला रहे तुझे? Rich Chadda is wasted in her role, anyone who has seen मसान will feel let down, feels like her character picks up where she left off in Fukrey.
Now, even though, the film is pushing the issue in the right direction, it falls way short of potential. The movie follows what we, in IT call, ‘The Happy Path’. No, exceptions, no error handling.
But real life is not like this, there are conflicts in marriage (any relationship), there were no shouting matches. ‘Really’? Hell, there had to be one. Where things are thrown, stuff broken. Why not?
What about the guy (let us not forget him)? Does he not have any dreams of his own? (more on this later). My dog has more ego than him. Marriage is not about happiness (yeah right, साला सब हिंदी पिक्चरों का कसूर हैं ), it is about how two people discover each other, figure out what works, what the other wants/needs (Yes, sorry to break it to you, but this is true of ‘love marriages’ also). There is no end to this process, the two discover that they have changed (sometimes completely) from the people who got married, and that is ok. Look, I am not saying I am an expert marriage counselor, but I am married 🙂 and that should be enough for a qualification.
The film simply does not attempt to explore complexities, I wanted to say ‘bring it on’.
My other gripe about the movies is our obsession with defining success specifically. The come back has to be about getting selected to the Indian national team after सात साल दो महीने (seven years, two months), anything else/less is not good enough. Why? The ‘come back’ just felt like ‘going back’. Time, unfortunately, moves forward, never backwards. Why can happiness/fulfilment be achieved only by making it back to the national team? The idea of using a sport for conveying the message of fulfilment/’come back’ is flawed. Sports requires, agility, strength, stamina, repetition …. All, features of age/time. So is this a movie about ‘I want to do what I could do in the past?’, if so how many can really do this, is making it to the national side really the means to showcase this? The journey of the comeback is The story. Not making it to the national side. But I forgot, we are so obsessed with success, so anything short of the specific, is a failure (or simply a प्रयास). It should have been the ‘come back’ journey and the revelation on the way. The revelation of the path to fulfillment. That should have been The story. Marriage is about two people learning to live with each other, balancing, often (dare I use the word) compromising, so that both feel fulfilled. And well, if you really want me to say it, it is about love also. There, I said it.
It could have been a bit like the way Kathleen Kelly, in You’ve Got Mail, discovers that she is great at writing children’s books. I wish Jaya had found the next chapter in her life, rather than wanting to go back. Some dreams will and have to remain unfulfilled for living a fulfilling life.
Life would be so boring without a few regrets.
Anyway, please do watch. Nikhil Mehrohtra and Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari have a good film here.