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Death in our part of the world is followed by a period of penance-like mourning for the rest of the family. In a typical Hindu family, the mourning starts from the day of cremation and lasts for 13 consecutive days whereby the bereaved family has to follow strict restrictions. This extended period of mourning, compared to other religions, makes funerals more somber for the Hindus.

Now imagine someone making a film on this. One would expect melancholy to reign. But the freshly released “Pagglait” on Netflix turns a gloomy affair into dark comedy, sometimes so hilarious that laughter is inevitable. No wonder the Hindi-language comedy-drama, written and directed by Umesh Bist, is being talked about so much on social media.

Sandhya Giri (Sanya Malhotra) is a young widow who is yet to come to terms with the death of her husband Astik. As the rest of the family is crying their hearts out on the day of his funeral, Sandhya can’t find herself shedding a tear. In the days to follow, while still within the 13-day mourning period, Sandhya is aloof about the proceedings around her. She is instead craving for potato chips, Pepsi and gol gappas, all off limits.

While her parents, in-laws and the rest of the family members are shocked at Sandhya’s indifference at her husband’s death, Sandhya also gets into a mental conflict when she finds a girl’s photograph in Astik’s cupboard. She gets obsessed about finding the truth behind what she thinks is an affair between the girl Aakanksha (Sayani Gupta) and Astik. Her conflict is further aggravated and involves the whole family when they discover that Astik has taken out a huge life insurance package with Sandhya as its only nominee.

The story of “Pagglait” is as colorful as its ensemble cast comprising of some of the most talented actors in Indian cinema. Ashutosh Rana as Astik’s father Shivendra Giri, Sheeba Chaddha as his mother Usha, Raghubir Yadav as his uncle Roshan Sethi, and Meghna Malik as auntie Tulika, are just some of the recognizable names in the long list of lively characters the film features. Just as its complete story cannot be narrated in the review, nor can all its impactful characters be named for the sake of brevity, which is a shame. An unending series of conflicts, large and small, as well as the impact each character has on screen makes Pagglait a thoroughly enjoyable movie.

But Pagglait also portrays a bitter truth about patriarchal societies. It questions the legitimacy of arranged marriages where strangers marry strangers, because their families think it’s right. Probably one reason why Sandhya doesn’t feel much pain at her husband’s loss. Pagglait also refuses to make its central character Sandhya a typical Indian woman burdened with expectations from her family. Instead, Sandhya is free-spirited and unorthodox, hence people calling her ‘pagglait’ (mad/crazy).

There are a number of issues that the filmmakers want to tackle with Pagglait. But in the 1h 54mins movie, sometimes we wish the makers had stuck to the core theme instead. Some conflicts seem to be taking the light away from the central idea. Had the entire cast not been at their best elements, the screenplay would have ruined the film’s entertainment quotient, and we are thankful that never happens. Also, the music by singer Arijit Singh in his debut as a musician is a bummer save for a few melodious moments.

Who should watch it?

Right from its opening shot, we know Pagglait is going to be an offbeat mainstream movie. In that belief, we are not disappointed. Yes, the movie has its shortcomings but nothing big enough to dampen its watchability. Pagglait is a breath of fresh air for everyone who enjoys good cinema. Specially recommended to people with a sense of humor.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Genre: Drama, comedy

Director: Umesh Bist

Actors: Sanya Malhotra, Ashutosh Rana, Raghubir Yadav

Run time: 1hr 54mins

Most of us read a lot more during the Covid-19 lockdowns than we did before. Had it not been for the pile of books I had bought but hadn’t got around to reading before the pandemic, I would have probably gone bat-shit crazy within a week of staying at home all day long. Getting lost in fictitious worlds was what kept many of us sane during such maddening times.

Though I read many good books during the lockdown, even tackling some that had been on my to-be-read list for years, there’s one I recently read that I wish I had gotten around to sooner: Emma Donoghue’s ‘The Pull of the Stars’.

This book, I believe, would have helped me make sense of the world I was suddenly thrust into and also given me some much-needed comfort. Although grim and heartbreaking, Donoghue’s 11th novel mimics present-day Covid crisis and makes you feel a little less alone and doomed.

The Pull of the Stars is a historical fiction based on the 1918 influenza-pandemic. Set in Dublin, at the beginning of the contagion, the story unfolds over three days in a Dublin hospital. It’s narrated by a nurse, Julia Powers, who is in charge of a maternity fever ward where expectant mothers who seem to have come down with an unfamiliar flu are quarantined together. Though the ward doesn’t get many patients, the women who do end up there are in the latter stages of their pregnancies. With hospital resources stretched thin and a deadly flu doing the rounds, Julia has to constantly deal with life-and-death situations.

There’s also Dr Kathleen Lynn and a young volunteer, Bridie Sweeney, who are fighting to save lives alongside Julia. The friendship that develops between these three women is also something Donoghue has chosen to focus on besides just how the world dealt with a crisis in those times. I especially loved that side of the story as it was a reminder of the fact that love blooms in the unlikeliest of places and that we are all trying to do the best we can.

I have read Donoghue’s internationally bestselling novel ‘Room’, inspired by the Josef Fritzl case where a girl was held captive and raped by her father for 24 years. It would be wrong to say I enjoyed it because the subject matter was so grotesque but Donoghue’s writing style is crisp and you completely fall for the story, hook, line, and sinker. In The Pull of the Stars too, Donoghue’s prose is visceral and you get the sense of urgency in the cramped, tiny ward where healthcare workers are fighting against all odds.

The story also shines light on how those who have been neglected by the society are often the ones who suffer the most, and that things are no different when there’s a health crisis.

There’s a section in the book where Dr Lynn criticizes the government for Dublin’s poverty and high infant mortality. Julia, however, says she doesn’t have time for politics to which Dr Lynn replies, “Oh, but everything’s politics, don’t you know?”

It is moments like these, and there are plenty of them, that make the book so relevant in today’s times.

I have recommended this book to friends only to be told they don’t want to read something that reminds them of a situation they are yet to get over. But The Pull of the Stars makes you realize what we are going through isn’t unique and thus makes it a little easier, in your head, to endure the rough times we are living through.

Fiction

The Pull of the Stars

Emma Donoghue

Published: 2020

Publisher: Picador

Language: English

Pages: 294, Paperback

Netflix’s algorithm works rather strangely, its ‘new releases’ section sometimes featuring films that have been released almost a year ago on the OTT. Also, I’m beginning to doubt the legitimacy of its ‘Trending now’ list which throws in random movies and series to get the audience to watch something they’d probably skip otherwise.

Anyway, Netflix recently threw a 2007 Indian film in my profile, a film I knew about but never watched as the name didn’t appeal to me. But when I finally did go through the film that had been on ‘my list’ for a few weeks “Manorama Six Feet Under” turned out to be the exact kind of movie for which I have Netflix installed.

Inspired by the controversial Roman Polanski 1974 neo-noir classic “Chinatown”, Manorama Six Feet Under is an Indian thriller co-written and directed by Navdeep Singh. Not a commercial success back then, the film turns out to have a cult following, with most critics giving it positive reviews. Released in 2007 when Bollywood was testing the waters for realistic films that broke industry stereotypes (“Swami,” “Khoya Khoya Chand”, “Dharm”), Manorama falls squarely in the list of experimental Bollywood productions that were ahead of their time and served to create benchmarks for the future.

Satyaveer Singh Randhawa (Abhay Deol) is an aspiring writer whose debut novel Manorama has failed miserably. Having been implicated and suspended on bribery charges, the desolate engineer is living a dull life in dry Lakhot in Rajasthan with his wife Nimmi (Gul Panag) and a young son.

Things change overnight when he gets a strange visitor at home—a middle-aged woman who identifies herself as Mrs. P. P. Rathore (Sarika), the wife of the local irrigation minister and former Maharaja P. P. Rathore (Kulbhushan Kharbanda). Mrs Rathore, who claims to be a fan of Satyaveer’s novel, requests him to spy on her husband, who she believes is having an affair.

Initially shocked at the strange request, Satyaveer reluctantly agrees to the woman’s plea in return for a decent sum of money. But in no time, the newly turned private detective finds himself in deep trouble. Satyaveer finds that the woman visiting him is not Mrs Rathore but Manorama, an activist who then suddenly dies by suicide, further complicating the plot for Satyaveer. Intrigued and intimidated at the same time, Satyaveer decides to find out the truth and gets in too deep in a series of mysteries.

Manorama is a slow burner. The events unfold at a grittily sluggish pace, but all that seems to be intentional. The writing and direction serve to divert audience attention from the fact that the film is based in a small and austere town in Rajasthan. The audience is too occupied following the central character of Satyaveer and his small successes and big failures.

This is where we also come to realize that Abhay Deol, as an actor, is criminally underrated in Bollywood. Maybe his belonging to Bollywood’s ‘macho men’ family created unwanted expectations that hindered his career. But he doesn’t lack talent and it is sad that the industry failed to make the best use of it. In Manorama, Deol is the driving force upon whom the whole film revolves. He plays Satyaveer with honesty and consistency throughout.

In a film that is evidently low-budget and doesn’t seem to invest much in creating appealing visuals, the cast, besides strong writing and direction, is the strength of Manorama. It also features the talented Vinay Pathak as Brijmohan, a cop and Satyaveer’s brother-in-law, and one of the early supporting roles played by the now famous Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Chhaila, a local goon.

Who should watch it?

If you haven’t watched Manorama Six Feet Under already, you have missed out on an important thriller movie. Even though the slow pace and length might not appeal to everyone, Manorama is not a film to missed by the lovers of suspense thrillers.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Genre: Crime, drama

Actors: Abhay Deol, Sarika, Vinay Pathak

Director: Navdeep Singh

Run time: 2h 17min

Historical fiction transports you to another time and place. But only a good writer will be able to evoke the senses so well that you feel like you are living in a different world. Jojo Moyes manages that with ‘The Giver of Stars’.

In the book’s acknowledgments section, Moyes says The Giver of Stars is a labor of love, and that writing it was an unusual joy. Reading it brought a kind of pure joy that I hadn’t felt since the first time I read ‘The Good Earth’ by Pearl S Buck.

Set in small-town 1930’s Kentucky, the book is based on the real-life Pack Horse Librarians of Kentucky, or the Horseback Librarian program as it was called then. The program delivered books as part of Eleanor Roosevelt’s traveling library and ran from 1935 to 1943, making books accessible to over 100,000 rural inhabitants.

Alice Wright, an Englishwoman, thinks marrying the handsome American Bennett Van Cleave will help her escape her suffocating life in England. She soon realizes that married life is not what she expected it to be. To make matters worse, there is her overpowering father-in-law interfering in everything. That’s when she comes across Roosevelt’s program to establish traveling libraries and volunteers for it.

Here, she meets the brave and independent Margery, who heads the initiative, and Beth, Izzy, Sophie and Kathleen, all headstrong women in their own rights. They each show Alice a side of life she has never seen. The women are all battling with their own issues and the program gives them a sense of purpose. It also helps them build better relationships with the townspeople as well as with each other, and to find some much-needed solace that way. Managing a library is also how they refuse to be brought down by men and how they think women need to be.

Despite the dangers of a challenging landscape and constant threats by men to stop prancing around in horses, the women are committed to delivering books to those who have never had books to read. By doing so, they manage to arm people with information they have never had. And that sometimes creates a lot of rift and tension that endangers the women’s lives as well.

I give this book five out of five stars. If I could, I would give it more. It has conflict, drama, purpose, friendship, and love; the story is tender, heartbreaking, funny, and reads like a thriller. Although a thick book, it will suck you right in and you will want to get to the end as quickly as possible.   

Fiction

The Giver of Stars

Jojo Moyes

Published: 2019

Publisher: Penguin Random House

Language: English

Pages: 437, Paperback