Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Rafi and Sanya Malhotra as Miloni in Ritesh Batra’s PHOTOGRAPH. Courtesy of Amazon Studios.
In director Ritesh Batra’s previous hit film THE LUNCHBOX, two strangers become linked by chance events involving an inanimate object, a lunchbox. In his follow-up film PHOTOGRAPH, it is a photo that brings two strangers in contact. Rafi (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) is a street photographer from a rural village struggling to make a living taking photos of visitors to a famous Mumbai tourist spot. Miloni (Sanya Malhotra) is a shy, soft-spoken young woman studying to be an accountant, a career chosen for her by her prosperous Mumbai family. Feeling overwhelmed by her overbearing family, she wanders one day to the tourist site, where Rafi snaps her photo. The photograph he takes of her becomes a link with far-reaching consequences for their lives.
Like Ritesh Batra’s previous film THE
LUNCH BOX, PHOTOGRAPH is about more than a simple chance event. Batra
uses their encounter to not only explore the common humanity and
differing lives of these two people but to offer gentle social
commentary on the economic divide in modern India, as well as the
common human search for self and a fulfilling life. While Miloni’s
family have pressed her into her studies, Rafi is working not just to
support himself but to support the beloved grandmother who raised
him, Dadi (Farrukh Jafar), and pay back his late father’s debts so
she can move back into the family home they once shared. For both
Rafi and Miloni, family obligations weigh heavily.
PHOTOGRAPH is in English and Hindi –
sometimes in the same sentence – but it is fully subtitled. Where
THE LUNCHBOX used the elements of farce – mistaken identity,
misunderstandings, humor – to tease out its story of two people who
otherwise would not meet, PHOTOGRAPH uses the outline of a Bollywood
romance to tell its intertwined tale.
PHOTOGRAPH does not have the same humor or charm (largely thanks to Irrfan Khan’s appealing performance) that the THE LUNCHBOX did, but it does have the same warmth, humanity and intelligence, and it has something worthwhile to say. While it is sometimes sweet or funny, often thanks to scene-stealer Jafar as the feisty grandmother, PHOTOGRAPH has a more somber, even bittersweet tone overall.
The acting is good, and the lead
characters in PHOTOGRAPH are appealing, particularly Malhotra as
Miloni, but the more serious tone keeps the energy lower. Still,
PHOTOGRAPH has something to say about humanity and people’s lives,
both universal and specific to Indian modern life.
The two young people “meet cute,”
like in any Bollywood romance, and then circumstances bring them back
together. Rafi is being pushed to marry, mostly by his grandmother
but also by the fellows with whom he shares a crowded apartment. He
resists, in part because he doesn’t like the idea of marrying a girl
in his village and then leaving her there while he works in the city,
and partly because he wants to focus on paying off the debt. When
Miloni returns in search of Rafi, hoping to get another copy of the
photo she liked after her copy is lost, he hits on the idea of asking
her to pose as his fiancee when his grandmother comes to visit.
It is a common romantic comedy device
but Batra makes it serve other purposes. The man and woman in this
film are both young but they are divided by wealth and opportunity,
have very different backgrounds, religions and family expectations.
Yet both feel the pressure from their circumstances. Batra uses their
differences to comment on the economic divide in India – the wealthy,
well-educated in Mumbai versus the rural. poorly-educated with
limited economic options, as well as on matters of religion and even
skin tone.
Miloni looks to have it all but we see
from the beginning that she is as constrained by her circumstances as
Rafi is by his. Her father beams when he sees her picture on a
billboard praising top students at an accounting school but she seems
to do little other than study and there is a dutiful joylessness to
her life. An early scene is revealing, as we see her shopping for a
new top with her mother. She tries on a bright yellow one with a
faint smile, but the choice is overruled by her mother, who selects a
pink one instead. Miloni says nothing but as she tries on the pink
top, we see the resignation on her face In a later scene, we learn
that Miloni wanted to study theater, but her family insisted on the
more lucrative accounting career. Passive, dutiful Miloni complied.
Meeting Rafi starts to change that,
although not entirely in the way we might expect. Another telling
detail has to do with the photo Rafi took. As both her classmates and
later Rafi’s friends/roommates admire it, someone comments that she
looks prettier in the photo than in person. Malhotra is beautiful, of
course, but the comment is revealing about the character she is
playing, that Rafi has captured something about her that others did
not see, that he brings out the best in her.
The director firmly but gently guides
us through their intersecting lives, drawing out details of Indian
society along the way. While the tone is romantic, it is also a touch
sad and wistful. There are moments of humor, often with Rafi’s
rascally grandmother or his more carefree friends. Scenes are
beautifully framed, with fine photography, but the visual side is
never showy, remaining in the background to keep our focus on these
two people. A lot goes on just below the surface in this film. The
director directly references Bollywood romance films on a couple of
occasions, subtly underscores the class divide between the leads in a
scene in a movie theater, even touches on the supernatural at one
point, offers a touch of nostalgia for India’s pre-globalized past
and ties the two characters together through their families separate
attempts to arrange marriages for them, to people they consider
“suitable” by their differing standards.
While at one point we feel PHOTOGRAPH
drifting into conventional romance, the director gently pushes it in
new, more revealing and more interesting directions. Like his
previous film, Batra uses the very human story of two people to
comment on the human condition and society itself, no small feat.
PHOTGRAPH, in English and Hindi with
English subtitles, opens Friday, May 24, at Plaza Frontenac Cinema.
Review
PHOTOGRAPH – Review
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In director Ritesh Batra’s previous hit film THE LUNCHBOX, two strangers become linked by chance events involving an inanimate object, a lunchbox. In his follow-up film PHOTOGRAPH, it is a photo that brings two strangers in contact. Rafi (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) is a street photographer from a rural village struggling to make a living taking photos of visitors to a famous Mumbai tourist spot. Miloni (Sanya Malhotra) is a shy, soft-spoken young woman studying to be an accountant, a career chosen for her by her prosperous Mumbai family. Feeling overwhelmed by her overbearing family, she wanders one day to the tourist site, where Rafi snaps her photo. The photograph he takes of her becomes a link with far-reaching consequences for their lives.
Like Ritesh Batra’s previous film THE LUNCH BOX, PHOTOGRAPH is about more than a simple chance event. Batra uses their encounter to not only explore the common humanity and differing lives of these two people but to offer gentle social commentary on the economic divide in modern India, as well as the common human search for self and a fulfilling life. While Miloni’s family have pressed her into her studies, Rafi is working not just to support himself but to support the beloved grandmother who raised him, Dadi (Farrukh Jafar), and pay back his late father’s debts so she can move back into the family home they once shared. For both Rafi and Miloni, family obligations weigh heavily.
PHOTOGRAPH is in English and Hindi – sometimes in the same sentence – but it is fully subtitled. Where THE LUNCHBOX used the elements of farce – mistaken identity, misunderstandings, humor – to tease out its story of two people who otherwise would not meet, PHOTOGRAPH uses the outline of a Bollywood romance to tell its intertwined tale.
PHOTOGRAPH does not have the same humor or charm (largely thanks to Irrfan Khan’s appealing performance) that the THE LUNCHBOX did, but it does have the same warmth, humanity and intelligence, and it has something worthwhile to say. While it is sometimes sweet or funny, often thanks to scene-stealer Jafar as the feisty grandmother, PHOTOGRAPH has a more somber, even bittersweet tone overall.
The acting is good, and the lead characters in PHOTOGRAPH are appealing, particularly Malhotra as Miloni, but the more serious tone keeps the energy lower. Still, PHOTOGRAPH has something to say about humanity and people’s lives, both universal and specific to Indian modern life.
The two young people “meet cute,” like in any Bollywood romance, and then circumstances bring them back together. Rafi is being pushed to marry, mostly by his grandmother but also by the fellows with whom he shares a crowded apartment. He resists, in part because he doesn’t like the idea of marrying a girl in his village and then leaving her there while he works in the city, and partly because he wants to focus on paying off the debt. When Miloni returns in search of Rafi, hoping to get another copy of the photo she liked after her copy is lost, he hits on the idea of asking her to pose as his fiancee when his grandmother comes to visit.
It is a common romantic comedy device but Batra makes it serve other purposes. The man and woman in this film are both young but they are divided by wealth and opportunity, have very different backgrounds, religions and family expectations. Yet both feel the pressure from their circumstances. Batra uses their differences to comment on the economic divide in India – the wealthy, well-educated in Mumbai versus the rural. poorly-educated with limited economic options, as well as on matters of religion and even skin tone.
Miloni looks to have it all but we see from the beginning that she is as constrained by her circumstances as Rafi is by his. Her father beams when he sees her picture on a billboard praising top students at an accounting school but she seems to do little other than study and there is a dutiful joylessness to her life. An early scene is revealing, as we see her shopping for a new top with her mother. She tries on a bright yellow one with a faint smile, but the choice is overruled by her mother, who selects a pink one instead. Miloni says nothing but as she tries on the pink top, we see the resignation on her face In a later scene, we learn that Miloni wanted to study theater, but her family insisted on the more lucrative accounting career. Passive, dutiful Miloni complied.
Meeting Rafi starts to change that, although not entirely in the way we might expect. Another telling detail has to do with the photo Rafi took. As both her classmates and later Rafi’s friends/roommates admire it, someone comments that she looks prettier in the photo than in person. Malhotra is beautiful, of course, but the comment is revealing about the character she is playing, that Rafi has captured something about her that others did not see, that he brings out the best in her.
The director firmly but gently guides us through their intersecting lives, drawing out details of Indian society along the way. While the tone is romantic, it is also a touch sad and wistful. There are moments of humor, often with Rafi’s rascally grandmother or his more carefree friends. Scenes are beautifully framed, with fine photography, but the visual side is never showy, remaining in the background to keep our focus on these two people. A lot goes on just below the surface in this film. The director directly references Bollywood romance films on a couple of occasions, subtly underscores the class divide between the leads in a scene in a movie theater, even touches on the supernatural at one point, offers a touch of nostalgia for India’s pre-globalized past and ties the two characters together through their families separate attempts to arrange marriages for them, to people they consider “suitable” by their differing standards.
While at one point we feel PHOTOGRAPH drifting into conventional romance, the director gently pushes it in new, more revealing and more interesting directions. Like his previous film, Batra uses the very human story of two people to comment on the human condition and society itself, no small feat.
PHOTGRAPH, in English and Hindi with English subtitles, opens Friday, May 24, at Plaza Frontenac Cinema.
RATING: 3 1/2 out of 5 stars