This curious mix of reality and fantasy is a spectacular mess
With films like Fire, Earth and Water to her credit, the least one expects from a Deepa Mehta film is a gripping and striking storyline. And the director does not disappoint us in this respect with her latest offering Videsh (English: Heaven On Earth). The story is more than simply striking. It's jolting and its 'different' to say the least. But not perhaps in the way we expected.
Going for a film like Videsh, one might have quite a few pre-conceived notions. One might think that it's similar to Jag Mundhra's Aishwarya Rai starrer Provoked. One may also think (and rightfully so) that the movie is woman centric, oppression related like Mehta's Fire or Water. But let me warn you, it's more than just that!
In Videsh, Mehta in an attempt to fuse the real with the surreal world, dishes out something that borders on being real shocking. Personally, I did not expect this from a Deepa Mehta film.
So what's Videsh really about?
The film is about a small town girl Chand (played by Preity Zinta) who is sent to Canada by her family so that she could get married to a cab driver Rocky - this being a common phenomena in the smaller towns of Punjab.
What awaits her is a typical immigrant Punjabi family complete with a father-in-law, mother-in-law, a sister-in-law, the sister-in-law's husband who has been sponsored by her husband-to-be but has so far found no job in the strange land and of course the sister-in-laws two kids. And there's more…
After getting married in a Canadian Gurudwara, Chand gets sucked into the everyday problems of the family. The husband who is burdened with the responsibility of having to get his entire family (the ones in Canada and the ones who he still has to import from) settled, offers no help to the girl who's trying to adjust to her new surroundings. In fact, his anger now finds a new outlet – the wife!!
Trying to adapt to the changes, suffering her husband's anger and nursing her wounds, Chand takes shelter in her dream world – a world where she tries to reach out to her mother and like in the story she'd heard as a child, the 'Sheshnag' helps her on her journey.
The story so far is as real as life. The colours of the 'sangeet' ceremony are not bright but real. Mehta also shifts from 'all colour' to 'black and white' often adding to the emotional undertone of certain scenes. This makes it easier for the audience to relate to Chand's plight. The way Chand tries to relive the story narrated to her by her mother almost takes us to her dream world. Any woman would perhaps find it easier to relate to Chand in those moments, when she lays bare her inner self, the innermost wanderings of her soul.
But come back after the interval and all the emotion that had risen so far, the plight of Chand which one could almost feel, is sucked out like magic. The film which takes an unexpected 'unreal' (Note: Not 'SURREAL' but most definitely 'UNREAL') turn works like cold water on the warm emotions built so far.
Chand who works in a laundry with her sister-in-law finds a friend in a Jamaican girl called Rosa. Rosa gives the bruised and battered Chand a magic medicine which will make her husband fall in love with her. Desperate to find affection in an unknown land, Chand quickly accepts the miracle drug.
The miracle drug does work, but not on the husband. Suddenly, the entire metaphoric significance of the childhood tale of 'Sheshnaag' and its significance in the film comes into a brighter focus than perhaps was necessary. Mehta in her attempt to give a certain form and life to Chand's alternate world, commits a blunder which was last committed by Rajkumar Kohli in the year 2002 while making Jaani Dushman. Mehta, brings back to life a species once loved by the Hindi cinema audience way back in the 1980s.
However, what we fail to understand is the 'need' to include phallic symbolism to give life to Chand's Shakespearean Forest of Arden – the alternate world of her dreams. Creating a garden of Eden need not necessarily have to have Eve (here Chand) falling for Satan in the form of a serpent. Also, the number of people who would relate to Milton's subversive saga while watching the film is highly debatable.
Preity Zinta – the 'un' bubbly star
Leaving aside the strange 'storyline' of Mehta's film, and moving on to the performers, Preity Zinta emerges as the sure winner. The actress who till date, has been known for her cute, bubbly image adds life to Chand. She depicts the vanquished dreams of a normal girl with as much conviction as the real Chand would probably have done. And going without makeup almost throughout the entire film, Preity gives what could easily be one of her finest performances till date.
Newcomer Vansh Bharadwaj too gives a convincing performance as Rocky, the husband who's tired of trying to support his family. His anger looks and feels original and the blows he doles out for his wife don't look too out of place until the second half. And by then the entire story looks far from believable anyway.
Like any other Deepa Mehta film, the rest of the cast too is just right for the characters they play. The detailing and screenplay matches up to Mehta's standards for sure. After all, one does expect some level of hygiene factor from a Deepa Mehta production.
VERDICT: Some films live up to the preconceived notions, this doesn't. But after having watched it, one would feel that it would have been better if it did. If you are a Deepa Mehta admirer, and have loved Fire, Earth and Water, and have already bought tickets for this one, just remember 'To err is human'.
Verdict: 1.5/5
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