Bhonsle’s outing at Rotterdam film fest

Filmmaker Devashish Makhija’s Bhonsle will begin its three-day outing at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), starting January 27. The film has been doing festival rounds after its world premiere at the Busan International Film Festival and India premiere at Jio MAMI 20th Mumbai FilmFestival.

His second film to go to Rotterdam (after Ajji in 2018) is set in a chawl in Mumbai and is a befitting requiem for the ethnic tension between the native Marathis and immigrants from Bihar that raises its ugly head on and off in the city of dreams, causes upheaval, and then is laid to rest, quite unceremoniously. The milieu is a leaf out of everyday lives of the city’s migrant cab drivers, who cohabit a dingy, damp chawl, sharing joys and sorrows with the same ease with their brethren from Maharashtra even sharing bathrooms.

They quite unknowingly fall prey to the call of political goons to save the land from the immigrants for natives. The tension gains ground in and around Ganeshotsav. The story starts on the eve of the 11-day annual festivity in the honour of the elephant God, and ends with the idol immersion on the last day, leaving you on the edge as the gruelling climax pans out in a public toilet cubicle. The hero, retired constable Ganpat Bhonsle played by Manoj Bajpayee, has been contrasted with a unique symmetry with the anti-hero, rabble-rouser Marathi cab driver Vilas (Santosh Juvekar). The female lead Sita (Ipshita Chakraborty Singh) becomes a victim of these circumstances. “It was a deliberate choice to show symmetry in the lives of these characters, to show how they are navigating the struggles, no matter how dissonant with one another… in every act,” says Makhija.

The others in the cast include Abhishek Banerjee, and Virat Vaibhav, all of whom have given the roles their best to make Bhonsle a gripping watch. The cast’s nuanced performances match the tight screenplay and dialogues. The editing is crisp, and the camera captures the play of light and dark in this tale that has both in equal measure.

Makhija, who is adept at managing performances by animals, has done it once again. Yet again here are dogs, rats, cats and even cockroaches. His attention to detail is praiseworthy. “Most of these creatures are untrained. Some of the dogs were strays around the chawl, who came to give a shot on their own whims, strolling into the frame as the shot was being canned, and lending a lot of weight to what I wanted to say, without uttering a word,” he quips. The revenge angle with a woman  takes the pitch a notch higher, and the end justifies the means, quite shockingly.