IFFLA ’09 : 7 days in slow motion
iView Author: Nick (Phoenix, USA)
Email: withheld
IFFLA ’09 : 7 days in slow motion
‘You must have had a pretty dreadful childhood to be so screwed up.’ A pretty clichéd line, you might have heard people narrate hundreds of times, in movies, in social circles, most of the times as a joke.
It’s beyond doubt that early years are a big foundation to an individual’s being. In fact a lot of our unimportant looking behavioral traits have subtle reference to our past. Even though subconsciously, pleasures and pressures of childhood are very much a part of us, one needs an introspective eye or a brutally honest friend to point this out.
7 days in slow motion showcased on the last day of IFFLA 2009 is a revelation, as a friend, opening our eyes towards this reality. On the face, it’s a movie about a group of 6th graders who show their passion for movies by making one themselves. A family movie on a Sunday is an expected houseful with a lot of children. Except the girl next to me said she hadn’t seen much in Indian cinema but had heard a lot. She came in presuming it should be good, since she got the last ticket even though she booked it a week in advance. I wouldn’t blame her as I was as ignorant of what this movie really wanted to say.
To be fair to the synopsis, it is a story of a kid; Ravi who along with his buddies shares this insatiable passion towards film making but it goes miles beyond that. A chance encounter hands this group a high end camera which has to be returned before the end of seven days. It wouldn’t take a lot of deliberation for them to decide what they wanted to do with it. Except that they also have exams towards the end of the week. For Ravi who is the most determined of the lot and also the class topper, this means a lot of problems. The biggest of them is an obsessed mother played by Rajeshwari Sachdev. Rajeshwari in one of her best characters sketches yet, plays this woman who is determined to hide her own failure in life through the academic success of her son. She is shown in an attempt to redeem her ego from the clutches of her own mother who unabashedly worships her other daughter. This affects Ravi so much so that he has nightmares about his mom committing suicide incase he fails and towards the exams he becomes incapable of sleep. But there is more than what meets the eye, the over jealous obsession of the mother has to heart a suppressed childhood ambition which makes her, her own nemesis.
The movie also weaves in a parallel track of the cousin of one of the boys who is about to be married away to a balding guy twice her age. The cousin is played by Ayesha Jaleel, a parentless seventeen year old, living with her aunt who treats her like a rag. This seemingly off track story actually guides the story further towards the message with subtlety. It hits the audience really hard when the movie made by the kids is finally shown. In one of the best child actor performances, the painful silence of Ayesha’s piercing eyes portrays what even a two page script could never have managed.
The main hero of the movie however is a graphic engineer from Walt Disney, its first time director, Mr Umakanth Thumrugoti. Even while dealing with such an intense topic, he never lets his audience settle down on a single emotion. He uses the plot to make comic jabs at how cinema across the world is ridden with false gimmicks. How the importance of a story is sidelined and a caricature of life takes over. I could see the girl next seat drawn in by the intense scenes with her palm stuck across her face and rollicking back with laughter at the effortless humor the very next moment. For me the most difficult thing is to have in the audience is a smiling face with tears rolling down the cheeks. I haven’t seen a movie before which even came close to achieving something like this.
I truly hope that 7 days in slow motion finds its distributors and has an opening in theatres throughout the world and speaks out the true meaning of independent cinema. All I can say is given an opportunity please DO watch it.
Tags: IFFLA
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
Yah we have had children movies come of age pretty late actually. Tare jameen par being an only standout and it wasnt really a classic that it was made out to be. I am looking forward to this one.
Nice read. I would definitely like to watch this one.
I’ll look for this one, too. You’ve convinced me.
A good description enticing the audience for what is to come…. vivid, yet not so clear, making me want to watch the real portrayal of the characters described.
@Avni: It is more in the genre of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.But yah we never dealt with anything like this before.
@Evelyn Thanks, appreciate it.
@Gayatri: I didnt want to give out much. Ruins the experience when you actually watch.
“I could see the girl next seat drawn in by the intense scenes with her palm stuck across her face and rollicking back with laughter at the effortless humor the very next moment.”
Did you get her number?
Great write up buddy….seldom do we get to watch movie which captures emotions of children in lucid way…loved Ayesha’s performance
@mainak
why do u think blogger has given such a vivid description and empashized so much on the ‘girl’ :P
Nicjk, a very well written piece on an obviously good piece of cinema!
Nick, if you are appreciating some movie, I goto see it..
Good piece of review.. Cheers!
how was leaving home? the IO docu
@mainak none of your business
@sammy dude i was expecting you to be the first to comment.
indraneel and jigna thanks !!!
@Rakesh. There is a blog by Evelyn on Indian ocean doc you might wanna check that out.
if you want my views, well I agree with Evelyn that the structure of the doc was really good. My favorite character if i may call him that, is most definitely Rahul Ram, really strong vocals. loved the song “O Raat ke Musafir”
But yah i have a lot of complains on how the doc was dealt with. It was patronizing to a very large extent. It show a confluence 4 strong headed individuals and I couldn’t believe he did not have a single scene wherein they have an artistic dischord. They always agreed with each others music in all jam sessions. Ahm i really believe that.