27 March,2021 06:59 AM IST | Mumbai | Mayank Shekhar
A still from Pagglait
Pagglait
U/A: Drama, comedy
Dir: Umesh Bist
ON: Netflix
Cast: Sanya Malhotra, Ashutosh Rana, Sheeba Chadha
Rating: '''
Basically the young protagonist of this movie - the character on whom the story is centred - is someone we never see on screen. Because he's dead. He's talked about in practically every scene. But we hardly know much about him as an individual, or how he passed away as well. To the best of my observation, there isn't a single representational image of his either. Which is a neat touch, actually.
What do we know for sure? That there is his funeral. Which in a sense, for most people, is the opposite of a wedding. Meaning, you're once again the star of a friends plus relatives' show. Except, this time, you're no more!
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As with weddings again, it's not like all guests/attendees are equally engaged with what's going on. But together they manage to create a certain âmahaul' (mood), suitable to the moment.
So does this movie, actually. And for this, besides a competent ensemble cast (a mix of fine newbies, and veterans like Ashutosh Rana, Sheeba Chadha, Raghubir Yadav), the credit must entirely go to the writer-director (Umesh Bist).
Much like its title suggests, Pagglait (a very UP-Bihar slang for a crazy one), is a Small Town Drama. No, we shall not abbreviate that to STD. And like with so many Hindi movies, majority of them (like this one) set in Uttar Pradesh during winters, it gets the lehja and bol-chaal (general sense of being) of the characters so right - you can enjoy the film for the atmospherics alone.
The wedding analogy is also relevant, because the deceased here was newly married. The focus is on his wife of five months, who's the young widow now. Don't know if you've seen the promo of this picture yet. If you have, I'd suggest that you âunsee' it, before clicking on the film!
Because the trailer sets this up as a comedy of manners. Given that the young widow is in no mood to mourn her husband's loss. He wasn't close to her, after all. This is really the first, maybe, 15 minutes of the film. It seems like a premise of sorts. But, really, where could you possibly take it from there?
A whole lot of places, surely. But this film certainly doesn't make any attempt at being OTT funny - in a Small Town Drama like Badhaai Ho (2018) or Shubh Mangal Saavdhan (2017) sorta way. It is in fact deliberately subdued, totally somber - smoothly sailing at its own sweet pace.
The rhythm and beats in fact are wholly (modern) television like. You sense a lack of dramatic highs and lows, or concrete cinematic moments, as it were. Which suits an OTT/Netflix release/platform just fine.
Dealing with death, and life of loved ones left behind, it could have taken a route similar to the recent TV series, The Married Woman (on ZEE5, also produced by Ekta Kapoor, as this). Which I highly recommend, just for how edgy that show is, and just as under-rated.
Or it could've totally dumbed down to the level of squabbling relatives in a caricature of a desi family dealing with kitchen-sink politics. There is a slight element of all of the above.
Where the film manages to stay afloat with much aplomb though is turning all of this into a coming-of-age story of the young widow, whose life changes within the span of the 13 days it takes for the soul to exit a home. That is, if you're a believer of course. Reminds me - the fact that his name was Aastik (believer) is all we really know about the dead man in this movie!
At the centre of it all is Sanya Malhotra, playing the young widow. How tough is this part for an actor, who's usually hired to express emotions? Her part expressly demands that she feel nothing. Because that's really what her character feels. How do you do that, without crutches of lines, props, movement, action; only back-story, and a bunch of relatively hyper blokes to play with?
There is a solid, self-assured stillness to Sanya on screen that, I suspect, is a rare, super-skill set of its own. You saw a touch of that in Anurag Basu's Ludo (2020). Way more of it in Ritesh Batra's Photograph (2019), which was diametrically opposite to her cranky role in Vishal Bhardwaj's Pataakha (2018).
She made her debut as the second/third lead in Dangal (2016), and has since scripted an unusual but memorable filmography already. I could watch her on screen for a couple of hours, while she seemingly does so little - yet manages to hold your attention, through and through. That's what you do in Pagglait, and you aren't disappointed at all.
