Jal, hindi Vollywood film Movie review, Johnson Thomas, Rating: * * 1/2
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Hindi Film review
Johnson Thomas
Splendid imagery
crippled by a wayward script
Film: Jal
Cast: Purab Kohli, Kirti Kulhari, Tanishtha
Chatterjee, Mukul Dev, Ravi Gossain, Yashpal Sharma
Director: Girish Malik
Rating: * *
½
‘Jal’ is
definitely an experience – of the trials and tribulations experienced by tribal
villagers living in the Rann of Kutch where potable water is scarce and life is
a series of never ending hardships. Rakesh Mishra’s story developed into a
script by director Girish Malik and Rakesh himself plays out like a Shakespearean tragedy in
part and existential dilemma in the other. Unfortunately the two halves don’t
mesh together enough to make it worth connecting with on a more cerebral and
emotional level. So the effect is not exactly gritty enough neither does it
manage to draw you in completely. And that’s mainly because the story and
narrative is logically flawed.
The film opens with a stunningly digitized desert
storm coming at you from the horizon, while in the foreground you see
Bakka(Purab Kohli) desperately digging a well in search of water for his
pregnant wife Kesar(Kirti Kulhari), who is literally dying of thirst. Cut to
the past where Bakka is the water diviner who appears to have some innate
sensitivity that allows him to divine the position of water several meters
below the surface. It’s of course not an exact science but in terms of averages
, he is supposed to be successful. The irony though is that the tribal village
he belongs to does not have any water well while the rival village has one that
is belly full right up to the top. In this scenario, there enters a trio of
foreign biologists studying the flamingos that flock to this region year after
year. They discover that the flamingo young are dying because of the high
salinity in the sea water and decide to build a pond to provide fresh, less
saline water in order to save the birds. Bakka’s friend Rakkala(Ravi Gossain)
and several others get hired to do the manual jobs while a fuel run bore digger is imported from the city to get the job done. But water is not found
and after several unsuccessful digs the biologists seek Bakka’s help. Soon
enough Water is found and the birds are saved but when it comes to helping the
thirsty villages in the same manner the biologists show reluctance. Tragedy and
misunderstandings ensue and Bakka is thrown out of the village.
The narrative scrambles together several subplots in
it’s effort to increase the complexity but the result is non cohesive and
tending to incoherence. The romance between Bakka and Kesar, the war over
water, the unrequited love angle, the betrayal of trust, abandonment,
sacrifice, survival are elements that find ample space in the telling but the
logical flow, coherence and clarity is missing. The spatial dimensions are also
not very clearly laid out so as the story plays along more and more
inconsistencies crop up. Also given the tendency of man to find solace in an
abode that is located close enough to basic necessities, it’s a little
difficult to understand why the village without water never relocated. Or made
use of the water pond that was created for the flamingoes. The back story could
have been developed to take care of these questions. Also the development is
not very accomplished either. In a turn of events Bakka asks his friend Rakkala
to head for the mound hiding the jewelry collected from the villagers, while he
himself goes to return the vehicle with the bore-digging machine. On his return
he finds the mound empty of the hidden jewelry and promptly breaks out in a
tearful refrain. He obviously forgot that Rakkala was sent to get the jewelry.
Several such narrative inconsistencies could well have been avoided with a few
more rewrites. The Indian cast is competent but the foreigners look lost and
totally clueless as to what they are doing. Saidah Jones, Gary Richardson both
appear out of their elements(in a logical sense). Physically also, they don’t
appear to be affected much by the relentless heat and the lack of water. First
timer Girish Malik fails to create a believable scenario and therein lies the
disconnect. Sunita Radia’s awe-inspiring cinematography is the only truly
amazing thing about this film. She manages to make the experience a
spell-binding sea of visuals of deserts cape that haunt you much after the
movie is done with.
‘Jal’ could well have become the flavor of the year
provided the writer and director had the foresight to do a redraft- or maybe
several redrafts of the script. As it is, this film demands viewing solely
because of it’s stunning, awe-inspiring cinematography and magnificent, desert
set-up.
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