I had not heard of this movie before coming across it on Youtube possibly because I am not a big movie buff and partly because I don't remember it being released in mainstream cinema. However, the National Award Winning Film 'Memories in March' directed by Sanjoy Nag is an absolute delight.
The film follows the story of a heart-broken mother (played by Deepti Naval) who goes to Kolkata to complete the last rites of her son, Siddharth who died in a car accident under the influence of alcohol. She is received at the airport by his friends from his office and taken to the crematorium. She has many questions, disbelief and grief but she copes up with all this with extraordinary courage and grace. Thus starts her journey into the world of her son, a world that is full of dark secrets and revelations that she had never imagined existed. In the background, you sometimes hear her son's narration of the emails he shared with her and her own quest to find out the truth and come to terms with it.
The creative director, Arnab (played by Rituparno Ghosh)of her son's office and Shahana Choudhary (played by Raima Sen), the art director both play a very important role in the film as Siddharth' friends and colleagues and help Arti (Deepti Naval) discover her son all over again after his death.
Arti enters her son's house for the first time after his death to collect his closest belongings and take them with her to Delhi as his last memories. She is assisted in this by Shahana who patiently helps her arrange for the search, guides her around the house and gets food packed for her. Arnab too takes care of Arti by making sure that there is a driver at her disposal whenever she needs to travel. The twist arrives when Arti decides to visit the office to complete some formalities and expresses her wish to take back her son's belongings from his desk which includes a picture of herself. This simple request is met with discomfort and hesitation by Arnab, and she loses her temper. That is when the revelation is first dawned upon her by Shahana. Her son was gay and was in a homosexual relationship with Arnab.
The world that she had built around her son, her thoughts about him come crashing down and she refuses to come to terms with it. But unlike most Bollywood masala films, this topic is dealt with utmost grace and respect in this film without a hint of melodrama. She does accuse Arnab of 'seducing' her son and gets into an altercation with him only to later read a text in Siddharth's phone that he had drafted weeks ago on his phone but never gathered the courage to send it to his mother. The film follows Arti's acceptance of Siddharth's preferences and her friendship with Arnab, the acceptance of an issue with much courage and understanding.
The film is not preachy and it does not humour homosexuality. It is one of those very subtle renditions of a topic many of us still refuse to come to terms with even in educated households. Legalisation of homosexuality in India is only a small step, the acceptance in our society is a much bigger challenge. The film beautifully captures this message without going over the top.
Deepti Naval is wonderful in her portrayal of a stoic mother from an educated background who manages to shatter her boundaries and look at her son's point of view rather than blatantly refuse it. Rituparno Ghosh is convincing as ever in his portrayal of Arnab da, a character who wishes to be set free and hates the world to be caged. Raima Sen too, has done an amazing job in her portrayal of Shahana, who was once madly in love with Siddharth before she realised he was gay.
Its one of the best movies I have seen in the last couple of years and it has restored my belief that Indian cinema has a future and that we too can make films with popular appeal which are full of substance. That is how one good movie can overshadow the thousands of nonsensical films that are fed to the unassuming public each week. I don't understand whether its the public whose tastes are not yet mature enough to see this kind of cinema or is it the filmakers who are just worried about their boxoffice collections.
In any case, I don't think anyone should miss out this movie. And you can watch it in 1 hour 38 minutes on Youtube in your home. Please do.
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