A gently paced report of metropolitan rot, a caring recognition for human versatility, and a somewhat late salvage activity for a movie industry suffocating in a trench of unremarkableness, chief Parth Saurabh’s Pokhar Ke Dunu Paar is the best Hindi film of the year. Delivered on Mubi, it recounts the tale of an absconded couple who return to their old neighborhood of Darbhanga, as they stagger from the monetary consequential convulsions of the pandemic and clutch the last remnants of sentiment as common sense reappears.
Not at all like most ordinary movies, Pokhar Ke Dunu Paar is more intrigued by the prior minutes, later and between the show. We never perceive how Sumit and Priyanka, played by the sensational Abhinav Jha and Tanaya Jha Khan, really made their relationship work, significantly less the way in which they figured out how to take off. Nor do we at any point remove to the displeased father who is much of the time referenced through the course of the film’s lean, yet at the same specifically rich, story. We’re passed on to exist close by Sumit and Priyanka, as they deal with the size of the choice they’ve made, maybe having envisioned a charming coexistence. Consider it a full length extension of the essential last shot of The Alumni, in which Dustin Hoffman and Katharine Ross mull over a questionable future in the wake of getting hitched in a snapshot of frantic energy.
Open positions aren’t the main thing that individuals like Sumit and Priyanka were denied of by the pandemic; their poise was grabbed away too. Thus, subsequent to having carried on with a full life in New Delhi and with no place else to go, they return to Darbhanga. Not wanted at home, they take cover on the highest level of a run down quarters that once used to be a terrific chateau, an image of their deteriorating relationship. The huge entryways and luxurious gallery make a deception of opportunity. However, Priyanka isn’t free. nor does she live in a penthouse, much as her impermanent convenience might seem like one. She’s caught in an outdoors jail, detached from every other person, both throughout everyday life and in the painterly edges created by cinematographer Pradeep Vignavelu. In the interim, Sumit, a wastrel, squanders energy ‘outwardly’, dallying in and out of town, idly chattering with his companions, and getting back each night with only terrible news.
He’s is the encapsulation of the entitled Indian male, living in ecstatic blankness, or possibly disavowal. He’s is so certain of his own capacities as a sweetheart and a supplier that he disregards Priyanka’s rehashed weeps for help. Played with stewing strength by Khan Jha, she’s apparently conditional around him, as though she’s watched this film previously. She pampers him when he pitches a fit, raises concerns however never her voice. At the point when Sumit guarantees he’ll purchase that oven she’s been requesting, she doesn’t trust him, nor does she trust him when he commitments to treat his pursuit of employment more in a serious way. Be that as it may, what decision does she have, as a settled on most likely the greatest lady choice of her life by deciding to take off with a man she assumed she cherished?
Unfurling across only several days, Pokhar Ke Dunu Paar exists at the convergence of maker Achal Mishra’s own movies and the testy stories of the Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan. The story works out in lengthy, slow, and generally static shots, and in permitting the discussions to unspool normally, Saurabh accounts for unforeseen redirections. Sumit and Priyanka know the intricate details of one another’s characters; they know while they’re treading lightly, and when they’re sneaking over a minefield. Frequently, the ‘point’ of the scene turns out to be clear 10, at times 15 minutes after it has started.
A noteworthy scene is organized on the enormous gallery of their home, with Sumit and three of his similarly pointless pals having a careless discussion over some ‘chakna’ and liquor that not even one of them can truly manage. This is the film’s longest, generally life-changing stretch of narrating, and there’s a motivation behind why Saurabh places it after the midway imprint. By then, at that point, the film expects, you’d have proactively manufactured coalitions.
Also, however troublesome as it previously seemed to be to have any genuine compassion toward Sumit, this scene drives him further into the domain of hopelessness. He seems to have a comparative effect on the vast majority; as played by the attractive Jha, Sumit can turn on the appeal as needs be, yet concealed underneath all that grandiosity is an uncertain soul, scared of being distant from everyone else. We discover that he was most likely the sort of windbag who crested as a young person, and keeps on telling a degree of command over a modest bunch of strays since they didn’t have any other individual to gaze upward to. His male inner self is delicate to the point that he will not go up against reality, that he no longer has however many companions as he frequently gloats he does. Sumit resembles those 35-year-old understudies that can be found dillydallying under trees at each Delhi College school, administering counsel to clueless freshers on everything from where to get copies and which telephone numbers to bring in case of a ‘bhasad’, ready to be given a role as the hero of a Sandeep Reddy Vanga film.
Yet, for what reason does Priyanka keep on being with him? Like such countless connections, heartfelt etc., that arrived at a limit during the pandemic, there’s a feeling that the lockdown snapped an imperceptible string among Sumit and Priyanka too. We meet them after they’ve likely dropped out of affection, after the adventure of resistance has worn off, and this acknowledgment colors the film in a completely new light. It takes a visit from Priyanka’s namesake companion, who followed the more regular way despite everything wound up troubled, for her to be shocked back to the real world. Pokhar Ke Dunu Paar isn’t such a great amount about clutching the past for all intents and purposes about the ceaseless strain to begin once more.
Pokhar Ke Dunu Paar
Chief – Parth Saurabh
Project – Abhinav Jha, Tanaya Jha Khan
Rating – 4.5/5
