Writer/Director: Nagraj Manjule
Genre: Romance/Drama
(Reading Time = ~2 minutes)
I read in an interview that Nagraj Manjule wanted to write an impossible love story which Sairat appropriately is! But I also felt that it is a complete love story. In it's journey from the early brushes of frenzied love to responsible adult companionship, the film shows all the stages of love that we seldom see in films. Most romantic films focus on pre-marriage or post marriage conflicts(No wonder Sairat has a runtime of 174 minutes!) and rightly so because young romances tend to be breezy and marriage stories tend to be more realistic. Having them together can be a clash of genres and might result in a confusing end film. But the deft handing of the floaty romance and the earthy grit together is Sairat's biggest achievement! From the first brushes to discreet meetings, to declaring love, to eloping, to overcoming difficulties, to finally making a life, Sairat is the ultimate romantic film for contemporary India.
I felt that the reason Sairat was able to resonate across regional boundaries was because it is a proper film. The definition of showing and not telling is followed almost religiously as if Nagraj Manjule wanted the film to go beyond Maharashtra. Sairat has very few dialogues and only in scenes where it is indispensable. The first 10 or so minutes of the second half of the film has no dialogues whatsoever and is a very powerful sequence which marks the end of the floaty breezy romance and the beginning of the gritty reality that lies ahead of the couple. A huge hoopla was made for There Will Be Blood which also had a brilliant non-verbal opening sequence of around 15 minutes. Although I am not comparing the two films, I find it a bit sad that I did not read about Sairat's long silent sequence anywhere during the film's critical run.
Sairat has it's flaws too but ones that do not draw too much attention. There are scenes where both the debutantes, who are generally convincing, seem stretched in their acting capabilities. It shows especially in their dialogue delivery. That made me think if the use of less dialogues in the film was indeed deliberate to hide the lack of experience of both the leads. But irrespective of the intention, Sairat proves how much film is a director's medium that a director can create a 174 minute long strong film with no experienced actors to back him off. Hat's off! Looking forward to his next!
