Heaven on Earth?
Perhaps the only Deepa Mehta film which failed to engage me was the “oscar nominated” Water, helped no doubt by its best looking wooden leading pair. But then again, with the safron brigade raising its aggireved voice trembling at the very thought of another Mehta film tarnishing their age old moral code, the cast itself and the location was her second choice.
The lady most often than not, be it Fire or Earth, sets the pulse right. (Disclaimer: I am not talking all of her ‘illustrious’ filmgraphy here.) Not for her the masala grandeur or the new urban chic of the mainstream fare nor the subdued structure or ambiguities of the ‘art film’. How much ever one can question the setting of her films, the emotional thread is well oiled and properly cultured. And where she treads, she treads sure footed.
Well, at least thats what i thought. Videsh – Heaven on Earth hints at the same Mehta fabric at the start. Twenty minutes in, Mehta tries something new. Suddenly, we are asked to rouse our grey matter as the real and imagined begin to move together. Myth and folklore gets in the mix. To her credit, she lets it run seamlessly, juxtaposing it either to make us pause and ponder or to reflect on Chand’s (played wonderfully well by Preity Zinta) decrepitude.
This very treatment takes it miles ahead of its lookalike (story wise) The Provoked. Giles Nuttgens, gets the mood right , whether it be Punjab (Ludhiana??) or Toronto. I had naturally presumed the B&W portions to be there because I was watching a screener and was surprised and delighted in equal measure to learn that thats the way it was meant to be.
Mehta is content letting Chand drive the narrative, using her obvious frailty and unfamiliarity in a new land and new household to emphasize her claustrophobic existence. By focussing on the reactions or lack thereof of the supporting cast, the scenes of physical abuse resonates in multiple ways. Empathy for Chand might make you wince at first but more importantly, its gonna get you reflecting on the absurdities you see around you everyday.
Do not expect to be spoon fed but ride along with it. Definitely worth the watch.
PS: I am probably doing the movie a big disservice by putting the cheesefest trailer here. If this is the way they are marketing the film, they will looking at more empty seats.
Tags: Deepa Mehta, Heaven on Earth, Preity Zinta, Punjabi, Videsh, Videsh Heaven on Earth Review
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
Sorry but I found Provoked to be a more heartful movie even with a mediocre director. Heaven on Earth left me cold especially when it verved off into the folklore. My reaction was WTF. It was not needed to tell the story. Preity performed well but her character was so weak and pathetic.
@lee,
i generally go with wht was used how it was used to tell the story than question whether it was needed or not. (i talking treatment here)..
i do understand why it may leave a lot of ppl cold. the reason i strongly believe is what Dibanker said in that interview of his a while back.