Chabiwali Pocketwatch
Sometimes you havnt heard about a movie, or a filmmaker, or even the actors, but there’s something that attracts you immensely in a movie. There’s this small little connection, this little bond that urges you, attracts you and lures you into watching a rather unknown film, with no credits heaving names like Bergman or Truffaut. It endears you especially when it’s someone young, someone youthful, someone you can relate to someone who’s about to kickstart his life and cinema, and someone who packs a punchload of promise and more importantly: beautiful cinema.
Mostly movies made by film graduates and students, making their diploma films, they tend to be a balloon full of hot air, and explode at the nearest second, and mind you, amidst the balloon, there’s nothing but the whiff of self created hot air. They’r egoistic, they’r obsessive, they’r undoubtedly passionate, they’r not close to what they really are.
Obssessed with the camera, obsessed with the lighting, with the dialogues or the sets, or the locations, or the music, but finally, there’s a man who seems to have none of those obsessions, and makes you fall in love with each of his little nuances, be it his dialogues or his subtle lighting, or his painfully endearing characters.
The man is Vibhu Puri. The film is Chabiwali Pocketwatch. Not many have heard about the film, but the film was India’s official entry to the Student Oscars in 2006, and after touring almost a dozen film festivals, the film righteously deserves all that, and much more. Vibhu Puri is a FTII graduate, and Chabiwali Pocketwatch, his diploma film.
Standing at the edge of a cliff, reminiscing his regrets, as a bottle of hope perishes away, and a muffled voice takes over, a voice choked with regret.
The film is all about eyes and expressions, and actions, and most importantly, the dying innocence.
A naïve publisher who is misguided and yet overambitious, a man who is keen on running at fast pace, and reach the target as soon as he can, and upon reaching it, like every false victory, he sinks into regret and realisation. Upon achieving what he loved the most, he simply opens the tight fists, and innocently lets it all go. That’s what happens with all of us, doesn’t it?
Regret and guilt is a needle like feeling, once it goes down, we sense a sigh of relief upon not experiencing pain, and rejoice. It’s when the needle comes out, and the blood spirts, when you realise the mess you have created, and soon, warm bright red blood mixed with a drop of tear. That’s what Pappan Miyan is all about. Endearing and innocent. Like a child not willing to listen to his mother, like a blindfolded lover, not able to see the glances, not able to spot the mute reactions, and the short stares. He was blind to all that, all he wanted was Babba’s poetry.
Babba, the most lively, the most poetic, the most stubborn and indeed, the most self indulgent old man you get to see who grows on you in a split second, and a character that’s stuck with you, long after watching the movie 3 times. He is a man who doesn’t want to grow up, a man who carries a pocketwatch, a man who uses his fingers to count his days, a man who uses his humour to cover his sorrows, a man who uses his laughing to hide his tears, a man who uses the pocketwatch to assure himself of the time left, and a man who’s best companion is Nawabjaan, his pup. A character who is stuck in a time warp, who doesn’t believe in becoming famous, for who knows, Babba won’t be the same Babba who has his small little bath in his small little bathtub. He is someone who wants to live his life the way he wants, and die the way he wants, but unfortunately he never tells anyone his biggest fear: death.
Not his daughter, not his friend Pappan Miyan, not anybody, but his mute little companion Nawaabjan
‘Main Jeena chahta hoon Nawaabjaan, main marna nahiin chahta’
The beauty of the scene where he talks to Nawabjaan about his biggest fear is that he is someone who doesn’t want to come to terms with death. He masks himself with his humor, his enchanting poetry, and his self assuring laugh, and decides to talk to an almost non responsive character, and cries, for nobody to hear, and nobody to see.
Babba doesn’t want his poetry to be published, he doesn’t believe a writer’s real achievement is anyhow connected to the audience’s applause, and it’s almost as if he doesn’t want to let go of his poetry, just like his leftover days. And mind you, the poetry Vibhu Puri has written is compelling and stays true to it’s Islamic touch.
Then, the beautiful daughter Minni. First things first, where was she? She is probably one of the most beautiful new faces I’ve seen on screen recently, hope many more filmmakers discover her. Her character has such a magically mystical feel to it, but her character is so beautifully layered, that you never get to know what she actually feels throughout the movie, and that’s the tragic magic.
Pappan Miyan is head over heels for her, and you get a feeling she detests him, but those subtly nuanced one liners, those tongue in cheek taunts, and that hesitance in telling him her real feelings. Her burning desire is brought out so subtly, when she touches a cactus in her kitchen, and then soon picks up the hot steaming pan to pan her angst, such excellent writing takes place, it leaves you in awe.
Like when Pappan Miyan calls and she picks up the phone, and he doesn’t reply, and keeps listening to her voice, you look at her expressions, it’s like she knows it’s Pappan, her eyes convey that instantly, and that’s the moment of that scene, and add the background score to it, and you’re numb. Also when she travels in a rickshaw with Babba and Nawabjaan, and despite having Nawabjaan in her lap, and having Babba by her side, her eyes wander, wander for Pappan, who’s bicycle falters, and he also looks on. Her love for Pappan is never obvious, it’s hidden, it doesn’t want to come out, just like her father’s poetry, but eventually both do come out, but in vain.
‘Pappan, main jaanti hoon ki main bol na saki, lekin tum toh ek baar toh sun lete’
The director also uses the alienation technique that was mostly used by Bertholt Brecht in his theatre, and somewhat what Sanjay Leela Bhansali used in Saawariya, though the ambience in Saawariya chokes you by the end, itenhances the lonely feel here. Alienation is when all the film has is it’s protagonists and their small little world, with very few people to see, and a small little world, and their small little moments.
The little pleasures that he manages to bring out is so warm, that it makes you jump and smile. Reminds you instantly of Gulzar Saab and his filmmaking, almost as if a few scenes were ghost written by him.
Like when the usually self indulgent and reclusive Babba is having a bath with his favourite shampoo and scent, and gets ready with his Pashmina Shawl, and the cap, and is ready to go out on an outing, because it’s Nawabjaan’s birthday, and they all get a family photo clicked together, such warmth, such innocence. Also when Babba says in the end ‘ Lekin Chapai master, main hisaab ka itna bhi bura nahin hoon, main apni royaaalty toh leke rahoonga’ Again the movie highlights the loss of innocence, the loss of those innocent times, where love was pure yet misguided, when all everyone had was time for each other, tolerance for each other, something that you can make out with the tolerance that all the characters adapt in their dialogues. There’s nobody running towards finishing their dialogues, or interrupting each other, they are all relaxed, gazing into each other’s tranquil eyes as if we had the pocketwatch modified and suited to our needs. The world was a Chabiwali Pocketwatch back then, when everything was in your own hand, with a key to rewind time, save time, and save the innocence.
Or ‘ Toh Pakki baat chapai master, tumhari shaadi mein loonga, royalty ke naam pe chaar aane’
This particular line takes me back to watching Ijazaat when Rekha sits next to Naseerudin Shah, and he narrates the letter to Rekha, very absorbing. The film is packed with it’s profound symbolism,
Babba is the language Urdu, it’s dying, it shouldn’t, no one wants it to die, but it will, and there is nobody to save it or save him, both of them rot ironically with their richness.
Particularly when you can see a much weaker Babba, with evident dark circles, his sunked in cheeks, the smile faded away, and his face reflecting on the Urdu writings, as he prays, maybe for himself, maybe for the evergreen language that everyone uses for their own good, and throw it away soon.
There’s a subtle contrast between Pappan Miyan and Babba, despite the fact that they bonded beautifully, also that somewhere their original ideologies matched, they conflicted no doubt, but they matched eventually. The contrast is that Pappan is running desperately towards time, trying to beat time, trying to run towards success, whereas the time stuck Babba doesn’t want to run, doesn’t want to walk, he simply wants to flow backwards, in the calm stream, no consumerism, no popularity, no criticism, no pain and no betrayal. Ironically, all these characters go their own ways, and yet stay so deeply connected with each other.
The other reason to be blown away by the film was it’s lighting. I don’t know anything detailed about lighting, neither am I experienced. But whatever it was, it had a serene and a quaint feel to it, without choking you with it’s slight darkness, looked sublte, made good viewing for the eyes, that’s all that matters.
Vibhu Puri seems to have mastered all the trades. Not only did he direct this compelling feature, write the dialogues, which mind you, blew me away, his poetic prowess is something to watch out for, but also that he wrote the lyrics for a song, something that I’m still humming, and a genre of music that I reallly love, and he did everything with near perfection. Kudos! Chabiwali Pocketwatch presents an ethereal world created through poetic power, little pleasures, delicate execution and stellar performances by the protagonists.
I don’t know how strong does a diploma film count in a filmmaker’s career, it’s obviously their first attempt, it could show that either it’s going to be all the way up, all the way down, or stick here and continue with a similar output. But one thing is for sure, let’s hope Vibhu Puri goes all the way up and makes even more endearing films, but also that even if he sticks to what he’s making now, he’s the next emerging director to come out in Bollywood, the recent ones being Shivajee Chandrabhushan and Navdeep Singh.
Eventually, I was done by watching his film three times over, every time finding a new nuance, finding a new meaning, finding a new expression, a new emotion, a new feeling and Chabiwali Pocketwatch is nothing short of what it promises, it lives upto the expectations, and all the accolades it has received.
****
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Had seen this film at FTII during one of our workshops.. was blown away by the lighting.. loved the film. Couldnt figure out why the name Chabiwali Pocketwatch at that time.
Thanks for giving a hint.. will see the film again and try to figure out.
Beautiful review of a beautiful film.
Where can one find this film ? is it on youtube ?
Coincidence ….was reading @ this film n its maker at someplace else n then this take….
This is the same guy right who’s directing his debut this yr : Chenab Gandhi..@ Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan….with AB senior in the titular role…
Thanks Gourav.
Yes Arthi, he is someone to really watch out for!
Yaatri, its not on Youtube. Try your luck on the Lensight FTII Dvds, if possible.
This is one of the finest films produced by FTII. After watching this film I have become huge fan of Vibhu Puri. I think we also not forgot to mention contribution of Anay Goswami who is the DOP of this film. He got presigious kodak award for this film. He was a DOP of film Dil Kabaddi… and Jehan as per my belive Shivaji chandrabhushan in an Independent film maker he is not a part of the bollywood. I have seen his film frozen and it is not at all a bollywood flick. He has mention bollywood as a monster in his blog. Anyway If you can find Girni-diploma film of Umesh Kulkarni watch it. It is also a fantastic FTII film got many national and international awards.
Valay,
I’m confused as to what was I thinking when I used the term Bollywood here, I normally dont use it. Anyways, I meant Indian Cinema, or Hindi Cinema, and if Hindi Cinema means Bollywood, you should also look at the context Shivajee Chandrabhushan says that. Plus, after Frozen, he is going to continue making films, and Frozen has proven his mettle, but the real spark, the real power is shown when you make your second film, or your third.
Thus I’m waiting eagerly for Chenab Gandhi, and then can we actually speak of his talent. But if he continues like this, he’s going to top all of them.
And I have no idea how I forgot to mention Anay Goswami, he is the unsung hero of the film! Brilliant.
Hi Jehan ..
i have seen the film too. .it was brilliant cinematography and shot taking. . Good post -:)
Thank you Hemant sir