Dhunki

Tension is one of the factors that attracts us to movies and other entertainment.  We experience it vicariously from the safety of our chair and normally it is released.  Action movies provide a lot as do horror movies and even romantic dramas.  For me "Dhunki" (2019) provided a different kind of tension, one closer to home.  This is only my second Gujarati film this year and both seemed worthy of a blog post.

Looking at the poster with a man and a woman my assumption was that it would be a romance and reading the brief description suggested there would be romantic tension.  Slowly as the events unwound it seemed that sort of tension was just over the horizon, but instead a more familiar, but very real tension developed.

On one side is a stable marriage, but we learn the wife, Ankita is frustrated that she can neither buy a house she wants or go on a desired vacation.  On the other side when the husband, Nikunj goes to work we encounter a female co-worker, Shreya (the two on the poster) and learn that she is engaged.  Soon the two are involved in an important sales presentation of technology that goes sour and they both share some responsibility.  The man feels he has been overworked and does not accept total criticism.  Back home his wife delivers a little criticism and express her frustration about having to defer a house and vacation.  He encounters difficulty getting another job as he is over qualified for the ones that would be offered.  A few days later he decides to startup his own business, delivering lunches which is risky and for sure a further postponement of his wife's plans.

His former co-worker re-enters as she admired his intelligence, co-operation and his cooking ability and before too long she has decided to quit her job and not only work with him, but invest some of her own savings.  Her fiancee, Hardik is a doctor intern and a little put off, but tolerant.  The two couples meet a few times and on each occasion Hardik expresses a harsh view of the world, but continues his toleration.   The business encounters obstacles relating to financing and technology.   Shreya's engagement is postponed and later she is asked to make a choice.  Hardik's grandmother is near death and the wedding is re scheduled to be sooner.  Ankita sticks by her husband, but she is aware of Shreya's dilemma and it helps put more pressure on the business.  The two partners criticize each other.

The end is ambiguous as startup businesses are unpredictable.  The tensions between the business partners and with their personal partners seem realistic.  One can appreciate the problems encountered by anyone trying to start a business as hard nosed investors are fearful of the unknown and consumers can be fickle.  An irony at the end is a potential saviour was one who had earlier brutally dismissed their technology presentation.

Anish Shah directed his first feature and co-wrote only his second film.  He is also listed as producer as is his co-writer Kuldip Patel who had previously written and produced a short film.

Siddhart Amit Bhavsar wrote the music which was unobtrusive.  He had been a playback singer

Sreekumar Nair did cinematography and editing.

Niren Bhatt wrote some lyrics for songs and suggested the title.  He has been a writer for popular Hindi tv series and well as some Bollywood movies, "Made In China" (2019) and "Bala" (2019).  Wrote Gujarati scripts for "Wrong Side Raju" (2016) and "Ventilator" (2018).  He has also written lyrics for over 20 films.   Check out "Ventilator" at http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2020/07/ventilator-serious-movie-with-comic.html

Pratik Gandhi plays Nikunj mostly in a light manner.  This is my 3rd film with him in a lead role all in Gujarati.  The first was "Wrong Side Raju" (2016) and more recently  "Ventilator" (2018).  Most of his films have been in Gujarati, but has been in an English film and Hindi.

Deeksha Joshi plays Shreya.  I had seen her as a marriage counselor in "Shubh Aarambh" (2017) trying to save her future in-laws.  Most of her films have been Gujarati, but she has two Hindi projects in the works.

Vishal Shah plays Hardik, the least likable character, but handles it well.  This is his second film.

Kaushami Bhatt plays Ankita, the loyal, but frustrated wife.  This was her first film, but has gone onto two other Gujarati films. 

Jaimini Pathak plays Mr. Shroff and is only in two scenes, but they are critical and his demeanor  is different in each scene.

As a Canadian it has been an education just to appreciate there are many languages in India that offer their own culture.  Gujarati to date has not been noticed, except the four I have seen have all been above average.  Prime Minister Modi is from Gujarati.

Ventilator, a serious movie with comic relief

We are all more familiar with the term "ventilator" than we were a few months ago.  It represents a life saving device or a desperate effort.  This Gujarti version of "Ventilator" is a remake of a Marathi original that I heard of a few years back because of the involvement of Priyanka Chopra.  I did not see that, but bought an iTunes song from it.

It is listed as a comedy and drama, but I would say the comedy is of the relief type as the drama is too heavy to dwell on, at least that is human nature.  A man's life is on the line and the family gathers.  We really don't see the man, but are intermittently reminded of him.  Much of the family is consumed with petty issues such as blocked up toilet sewage, a local religious festival with a last minute requested change, and malnourished coconut plants.  More seriously we become aware of family resentments, particularly between two sets of fathers and sons.

As death appears closer the eldest son is asked whether he wants to continue with the ventilator and at first he says no.  His sister resists and there is a bit of a feminist point made that ends up with a compromise to keep the ventilator plugged in for a few more hours.  Everyone seems to accept the decision, although not all are pleased.

The father-son conflicts become more apparent.  It hit me personally as it might other men.  For much of my youth I resented my father as he seemed to be the one stopping me from doing what I wanted to do.  I overlooked the many things he did for me, although as I became an adult I appreciated that he had his own problems and had made an effort to steer me in the right direction.  Cultural attitudes have changed and I realized my father did actually display his love in many small ways, but now days it would be much easier.  A theme of the movie was that a father's love is difficult to express and without saying, it meant in comparison to a mother's love.

The ending is not a big surprise, but I was caught off guard with a comparison to an incubator for a premature born baby.  Life is precarious at both ends and not to be taken for granted anywhere in between.  Set in India and having watched dozens of Bollywood movies I was expecting that there would be planning for the traditional first born son to light the funeral pyre for a cremation, but the talk seemed more modernized.

The film brought up organ donations and made the point that lives are saved.  I even learned it is possible to donate parts of the body I was unaware of.  I have signed a form inspired by a friend of my father in law who received a heart transplant and went on to outlive both my father-in-law and his own brother both of who spent a lot of time worrying about the imminent death.

A few notes about the movie production.   The comic aspects seemed annoying at times, but they were included perhaps to demonstrate how petty we all are a lot of the time.  It also set us up for an emotional reaction both to the family tensions and an imminent death.  In the end the viewer is left with some uplifted feelings.

Another interesting ploy was to use one family member flying in from the United States with his young son.  The young son apparently only spoke English and asked some maybe unintentional probing questions that moved the story along and illustrated that immigration has a price.

The Gujarti language has produced few movies that have reached my attention, but this one borrowed two familiar Bollywood actors.  Apparently Jackie Shroff's first language is Gujarti, but this was his first in that language after a long successful career as a Bollywood, mostly action star.  Some of his films include, "Mission Kashmir" (2000), "Devdas" (2002),  "3 Deewarein" (2003) and "Dhoom 3" (2013).  He plays himself as an action movie star that even the relatives gawk over.  He shows an emotional depth as one of the resentful sons, but devoted to his relatives.

The other Bollywood loan was of Juhi Chawla in a somewhat comic cameo.  She did raise the feminist issue.  As a former Miss India she once played the romantic lead in a number of movies.   Her hits include "Yes Boss" (1997), "Duplicate" (1998),  "3 Deewarein" (2003) and "My Brother...Nikhil" ( 2005).  She formed a partnership with Shah Rukh Khah that led to Red Chillies Entertainment that was involved with this production.  Juhi does have a comic touch, but is also very good in mature roles.  Lately her talents seem to be used mostly in comic roles, although she had had some involvement as a producer and has selected some socially relevant roles.

First time director was Umang Vyas who had done some assistant directing and acting with Bollywood films.

Niren Bhatt was a co-writer that had done "Wrong Side Raju" (2016) a Gujarti film and a Bollywood movie I will be blogging about but haven't yet seen,"Bala" (2019)

Karan Vyas was also co-writer who has written and been associate director with"Wrong Side Raju" (2016), and "Made in China" (2019) a Bollywood production.

Lately I have found some of the regional movies have provided some of the best from India.  Some good examples would be "Peranbu" (2019) and "Dharala Prabhu" (2020) in Tamil and "Uyare" (2019) in Malayalam.