A STRANGELY POETIC INDIAN INDIE

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Stumbling upon indie films on Amazon Prime is quite the surprise indeed, and though the mention of the production companies at the start of the film might suggest otherwise, the film certainly reeks of indie, and I believe this certainly needs to be considered when judging the film. Directed by Shiladitya Moulik, Mrs. Scooter (2015) has a relatively simple story which tells the tale of Aashima who moves into a new locale with her newly-wed husband Bhushan, and everything that follows after Bhushan’s untimely death.



Though the film itself is rife with multiple glaring production errors hard to ignore, especially if you are attuned to the technical aspect of films, from overblown scenes, jarry transitions in places, slowing the frame rate in places in a very childlike manner reminiscent of old films which had just discovered the stylistic device (in the case of this film, the scene, where she learns of Bhushan’s death, is one such shoddily edited sequence) and even the acting getting really loud for a feature in certain places, whilst tension exists in places it shouldn’t, I’ll admit, it sometimes became really hard to watch. However, if I’m still speaking about it, it’s probably because the crux of the entire work and the poetic parallelism of the journey of two different entities embodying the film – was ingenious.


The film which begins with Aashima moving into Bhushan’s house after their marriage along with his new rickety scooter, takes a realistically darker turn following his untimely death just a few days after the wedding. Another important indie component of this film is its realistic portrayal of a scenario, holding a mirror to society’s ugly side – one where Aashima gets labeled as a jinx ranging onto becoming the subject of the locale’s sexual fantasies, with just one person, their landlady, by her side, with the obvious motive of getting her married to her brother (still one of the very few benevolent souls in the film, portrayed beautifully by Madhu Kandhari Rajesh). However, the film takes the cake by personifying the abandoned scooter post Bhushan’s death, and the subsequent objectification of his wife, both of who, in some way, face a similar fate with the loss of their apparent ‘guardian’ (at least from the sight of things in the film, sadly, instead of a lover).






The film might seemingly appear to end on a ‘happily-ever-after’ note to most people, but it doesn’t. Everything’s just as inconclusive as they were at the start, where we knew nothing about the characters (and still don’t by the end of the film). This film is just a narrative dealing with a particular phase, enshrouding the characters in this veil where we never end up learning much about them – such as their place of work, vocation, past lives, friends – it’s just the characters quintessential to the narrative who ever manage to make an appearance on the screen. Putting aside any bias that I might have for this film, its IMDB score of   6.6 seems just enough to me considering all the technical faults that the film has, coupled with the story itself – which ingeniously deals with a wide range of topics from socio-economic issues to the problems women face to this day in our society, and the labels that are so easily strung onto some – all within an hour and a half.

Poster

Nevertheless, this film can be recommended if you have time to spare for a homegrown film which is in no way a cinematic masterpiece, but will leave a wrench in your throat.


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