Film: Bangalore Days
Cast: Dulquer Salman, Nivin Pauly, Nazriya Nazim, Fahadh Fazil, Parvati Menon, Isha Talwar.
Director: Anjali Menon
Imagine a parched land bereft of rain for months. A brief drizzle, however small, would thrill everyone in the land. What if it was a torrential downpour? It had been a while since I saw a film in my mother tongue. Months, maybe even more than a year. Then I sat down to watch Bangalore Days.
Bangalore Days is the story of three cousins – Kuttan (Nivin), Arjun (Dulquer) and Divya (Nazriya). It is not a growing up story, it is the story of what happens after they are grown up. Kuttan is a brand new software engineer, while Divya is a sprightly young thing dreaming of an MBA from IIM. Arjun is an adventurous nomad or shameless wastrel, depending on who you ask. The story kicks into gear with Divya’s hastily arranged wedding to Das (Fahadh), a quiet, unsmiling corporate guy. She moves to Bangalore with him, as does Kuttan. Soon Arjun joins them, taking a job as a racing bike mechanic.
Das goes for a foreign trip and the three musketeers have shiploads of fun in a landlocked city. It was like a second childhood until Das caught Divya trying to ride a bike with Arjun. Slowly cracks start appearing in a marriage that had not set well enough, to borrow a construction metaphor. Das, too, has a skeleton in his closet, which is a locked room to which Divya doesn’t have access. Meanwhile, Kuttan falls for a half-Mallu air hostess, Meenakshi (Isha), and Arjun makes an on-air connection with an RJ Sarah (Parvati).
In small, at times predictable and, at others, unexpected spurts, life unravels itself for the three cousins and they realise nothing remains constant. Bangalore Days takes relationships and situations familiar to us and gives them a twist. Instead of telling a hometown story it takes the ‘akkara’ route. Here the akkara (the other shore) is just an overnight bus journey away, but then Bangalore is both near enough to be accessible to everyone, but the idea of Bangalore is always just out of reach.
The most memorable of Bangalore Days are its characters. They are all very accessible. Every one of them has endearing qualities, while being irritatingly flawed. In short, they could be you or me. They were developed by a writer-director who cared, but who also frustratingly left a few ellipses to these characters.
The characters are also helped by some damn fine performances. Even minor roles were taken up by veterans and they ensured that there were no weak sports. Considering it was the first I was seeing of Dulquer, Nivin and Nazriya, I must say I was very impressed. Nazriya was the most spontaneous, while Nivin gamely made himself the butt of many jokes. Dulquer spoke with his silences and Fahad was able to give weight to what initially seemed to be a thankless role.
The stand-out, for me, was Kalpana. As Kuttan’s mother it seemed like she was just making up the scenery. Until something major happened and she was suddenly thrust into the limelight. Then you see why there are very few in Malayalam cinema as talented as her. But here there was a tinge of frustration for me. What should have been a landmark examination of the life of a long-married housewife in today’s fast-changing world suddenly acquired more stereotypical hues. Maybe Anjali Menon felt too much attention was being taken away from her leads.
But then, Anjali’s intention was always to entertain. So we can forgive a fresh software engineer having an apartment in Indira Nagar, no less, that would definitely be out of even his manager’s salary bracket. We can also forgive a ridiculously hot air hostess falling for the same engineer.
In the couple of days since I saw Bangalore Days I had more questions than I wanted. There were predictable elements (like the story behind Das’ locked room), there were story decisions that seemed contrived (like why Arjun had to be with motor bikes). But these were glossed over by the so many factors that worked, like how the parents viewed the cousins’ relationship, how Bangalore, instead of being a childhood dream was actually a reassuring arm that the cousins leaned against, how an earworm of a song with simple lyrics became an anthem of sort.
But I never had the questions or complaints when I was watching the movie. It is like a road trip. Like all good trips, the journey is more important than the destination. And Bangalore Days is an exhilarating journey. Go on, climb aboard. This is a ride you should take at least once.
