Sepia

~ Photograph, directed by Ritesh Batra ~

Ritesh Batra’s Photograph is an extremely delicate film. Set in bustling Mumbai, it has periods of complete stillness, and develops slowly, more like a photograph of yore than anything in today’s frenetic social-media world.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui plays Rafi, a street photographer at the Gateway of India, who makes his living taking photos of tourists. One passer-by is Miloni (played by Sanya Malhotra), about 21 years old, comfortably middle-class, who yields to impulse and has her photograph taken.

This simple transaction would be like two ships in the night, except that Rafi is under pressure from his grandmother to get married, and sends her the photo of Miloni to put her off. Dadi promptly decides to come to Mumbai to meet this girl. As it turns out, Miloni is a ‘topper’; because of her all-India rank in an exam, her coaching class puts her photo up on a billboard. Rafi sees this picture and tracks her down; she agrees to act as his girlfriend for Dadi’s visit.

Miloni has a clear comfortable future, a house, a family, and a maid who cleans and cooks and brings her hot drinks at night. Rafi is paying off family debts, and lives in a single room near the railway with four other men. There are vast gulfs of class, money, culture and religion between the two. (And perhaps age too — Rafi looks quite a bit older, but that could be because his life has been much harder). Any one or two of these differences would suffice for an impasse, and I did wonder if Batra had overloaded the gulf.

Batra’s Lunchbox was a charming film, set distinctively in Mumbai, revolving around the uniqely Indian dabbawallah system, and starring the always wonderful Irrfan Khan. It was immensely watchable: much said with very little dialogue.

Photograph is also a less-is-more film, but has a few problems for practical viewers like me. Rafi is very polite, not at all pushy, and very conscious of the class difference between Miloni and himself. What does he say to convince this middle-class girl to act as his girlfriend? I suspect the filmmakers could not come up with a convincing scenario either, so the film skips lightly over this scene. Likewise, Miloni’s family never worries about her absences, she has no inconvenient friends to become aware of her secrets, and it’s unclear how Rafi can afford to pay for the many cabs they take.

Practicalities aside, Siddiqui and Malhotra are both very good, easily able to carry long scenes with no conversation while the camera lingers on their faces. The beauty of this film lies in the acting and filming, and the contrast between the quiet wistfulness of the characters and the intensity of life in Mumbai.

The supporting actors are also good, especially Dadi (Farrukh Jafar, 86 years old!), with her nasal voice and opinions. Vijay Raaz elevates every scene he is in. The crowded scenes at the tiny stalls near Rafi’s house are beautifully shot, as are the quieter neighbourhoods and the Mumbai rain.

Much is left unsaid between the characters, and much is not shown in the film. Does Miloni have no concerns about accepting Dadi’s precious village-style silver anklets? What happens to the Campa Cola obtained with much trouble by Rafi?

Of course, the best films don’t spell everything out, but the motivations of the characters in this film, especially Miloni, remain obscure. She is not at all rebellious. She is almost annoyingly passive, and seems, if anything, younger than her years. When shopping for clothes, she says any color is fine — is she bored, irritated, uninterested in clothes, or just unsure of her own interests and desires? She naively describes her ideal life: living in a village, farming in the morning and having naps in the afternoon, an idyll based on the description of the family maid (who of course had left that village life to come to the city for work). Miloni’s life is not obviously circumscribed, and the attraction of Rafi is never quite clear. He is an interesting, thoughtful, kind, hardworking man, but are these the characteristics likely to captivate a young woman looking for novelty?

It is mentioned at her dinner table that Miloni had been quite the dramatic star in school plays, but had to give it up ‘for her studies’. My own interpretation is that she was drawn by the idea of acting a completely different life, rather than by Rafi himself.

Photograph is lovely at times, but not as entirely pleasing as Lunchbox.

Photograph, Directed by Ritesh Batra. Starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Sanya Malhotra.