Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Shevri ( India, 2006)



This can be called as a much sought-after story in the offbeat Indian films. Yes, when you take a look in to the non-mainstream Indian films, most of them are taken with the backdrop of a social issues- be it a caste discrimination, exploitation of poor (slum), crime against women… I haven't explored much of the non-mainstream films, but with the few I have seen, those mentioned above issues were the plot. But, having said that, I don't like to hold myself to talk or introduce one such off beat film Shevri, a Marathi film.

Vidya (Neena Kulkarni) an introvert kind of middle aged divorcee in Mumbai is sharing an apartment with an very outspoken and extrovert Maya (Mita Vashisht). During weekends Vidya travel to Nasik to visit her teenage son, who is taken care by her mother (we know all this through a series of flashbacks). 

The film starts in a evening, Vidya is just roaming the streets of Mumbai. As we enter into the night we know that Maya is busy with her boyfriend in their apartment and Vidya is just passing the time and waiting for them to finish what they had to finish.

As she travels through the deserted night, she encounters few strangers, from when she recollects her past- Her boss trying to take advantage of her, a misunderstood colleague, who actually helps her, her relationship with her mother, her struggle to win back her son who is inclined to his father and the events on how her marriage was broken. As said earlier, the story is told as a series of flashback.



The ending is very simple. At the break of the dawn, when a cycle tea vendor says that he doesn't have tea (which she’ll ask for) and he got only coffee, she realize that life is full of options and the happiness depends on which one she chooses. She calls a taxi to go back to her apartment by asking the driver to turn on the music in the car.

The connecting points of the events happening during that night and the flashbacks were well woven. I had to content with the crude subtitling (I saw it in DD Bharathi), some English words never made sense and it was too literally translated.

If you had a chance, please watch it and let me know your thoughts.



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