The Last Adieu

 The Last Adieu

English Documentary, 2013, You Tube, IMDB 9/10, Directed by Shabnam Sukhdev

The Last Adieu

An emotional tale of a daughter's quest to fill the missing pieces in her relationship with her 'Padmasri' awardee father, only to realize he wasn't the terrible father that her memory recalled and he was trying to influence her life all along without her knowledge.

The film's strength is its unusual tone of a daughter's disregard for her father, a eminent director at the Films division, who died young at 45 while working.

We hear from interviews of Sukhdev's friends which showcase the different person that he was, to the one his daughter remembered. The interview with her mother to talk about her father was truly emotional as the question becomes more intense about the yelling and fights when she was very young.

The revolutionary film maker of the 60's India, is recalled by his daughter when he slapped her without notice, just to take a realistic shot for his film on 'violence', was such a heart wrenching irony.

Voices of her father are incorporated on images, photographs and incidents, as answers for the questions that arouse in her mind all these years. The director cleverly makes them as dialogues of hers with her father and that seems to resolve her anger. It makes her see the other undisclosed side of her father through the eyes of his friends, colleagues, artist, peers and associates.

When she questions naively to one of her father's friend, 'Why marry if they can't avoid work life taking a toll on personal life?', it does haunt the viewers- if that's the price the creators like S. Sukdhev pay for presenting us with such powerful revolutionary work.

Kumudini

 Kumudini

2018, Malayalam, Vimeo.com, Documentary, Directed by Jaya Jose Raj

Kumudini

A simple documentation of an elderly responsible citizen, to protect her environment in the God's own country, from the devilish clutches of the pollution mongering industries.

The short documentary- Kumudini, which translates, 'pond of water lilies', has an apt tag line - 'A water lily chronicle'. It features an elderly lady named Kumudini, who sought the late President Abdul Kalam's intervention to fight against pollution of underground water by the neighborhood coir factory.

The film opens to Kumudini delightfully singing a film song, that narrates the jingling eternal flow of the river Aluva and the secret embrace of the waves and the bank. The musical score that she mouths, after singing the verses, introduces Kumudhini's love for clear water and portrays the child in her as well.

The film sways back and forth to explain who she was in the past, a civil servant posted in Zambia and who she is now, fighting against the 6 owners of the coir industry for compensation for the pollution caused by them to the local water body.

The sequences that the maker compiles from reprimanding our past mistakes, highlighting the ghastly Kerala floods and hinting on solutions to prevent such catastrophes in future, makes 'Kumudini', a pleasant and distinct viewing experience.

Maya

 Maya

2019, Hindi, Voot.com, IMDB 6.3, Directed by Vikas Chandra

A fine take on the mother-daughter relationship that leaves you wishing well for them both.

The film opens with Maya realizing that her mom is missing. The film scrolls to the happenings of a week ahead and reveals that Maya is dating a potential groom Rawnak, from a matrimonial site, to check their compatibility and the parents are waiting for them both to take a decision on their marriage.

Just when the viewers speculate on the maker's objective, whether its the single parent's hardship to persuade the daughter to get married or the daughter's disinterest in arranged marriage, the film takes an unexpected sensitive turn. The director Vikas Chandra scores in making the transition of the film in a fraction of a second accompanied by some fine performances.

The strain in the relationship of the mom and daughter mends and their love is expressed organically.

Dialogues are key in any short film and its spot on in Maya. The closing note when Maya's mom says Rawnak is a nice boy, Maya replies, yeah but his is still a boy. Haven't all groom hunting mom's have heard that from their 21st century independent daughters, I thought.

Hamare Ghar

 Hamare Ghar

2013, vimeo.com, Hindi, Directed by Kislay

 A tight slap on the affluent, who viciously entraps the full-time house helper's families for generations, in a disguise of providing a livelihood for the under privileged.

A 30 odd minute film, that firmly talks about the innate qualities of the middle income family's mindset that exploits sub consciously their house helpers, by involuntarily break their wings, for a simple selfish motive of 'uninterrupted comfort' for years ahead.

The film opens to a couple, Simran and Raj discussing on registering the maid's details with the local police station as they have moved in to a new neighborhood and the society demands the formality. Simran seems reluctant and says the maid Kamala is with her for many years and would even tell the society that Kamala is her sister. (One is touched and I in fact related to Simran myself, as I thought I cared for my maid as if she was a family member.) The strength of the film is, it throws me every now and then, to compare the happening with my very own life's incidents.

The maid asks for 1500rs from her wage, as its middle of the month and she wants to pay Pihu's fees. Simran searches for cash in her wallet and gives a Rs.50 note, which Kamala refuses. (Kamala isn't asking for exuberant advances like my maid, which I readily give and date it in the back of my recipe notebook.) Kamala is seen accounting the cash in a book that records date-wise all the petty cash she had received as token of gift, from Simran.

When Simran asks Kamala to sit on the sofa and share the evening tea with her, Simran casually asks her to train Pihu to make good tea as she doesn't want to drink any bad tea in future. The director starts working on the conscience of viewers, through that dialogue. Its a vicious cycle that the helpers strive to break, by giving their next generation education. But its the same vicious cycle the householders are trying hard to continue spinning, for they don't want their comfort lives be shaken for years to come. The film started growing on me.

I pondered on my maid sending her 16 year old school dropped out daughter instead of her, nearly a decade ago. I bought school books to try and educate her at home. However, she seemed to be more interested in the house work just like Pihu in the film. But when my maid's daughter got married and had children of her own, my maid's daughter was particular never to bring her children when she came to work for me. I found that strange at first but later understood that she didn't want to let her children know about the work she does.

The film throws light suggesting strongly that my maid rather didn't want her children to know that a job called 'household helper' even existed. That's not an option at all for her children and hence she kept them out of that world altogether, just like Kamala tries in the film but fails. (My maid would thoughtfully ask for the learning materials that my daughter used when she was little, like the mental arithmetic abacas kit, the Rubik's cube, chess board, Thirukkural books, puzzles, story books, dictionaries and she will take it for her girl child whom I have never met in person, not even once in so many years except for a couple of photos.)

When Simran realizes that Kamala had left the house one fine morning with Pihu, the first thing the couple do is check on their wallets and when Simran finds that only rs.1500 was missing, she verbal abuses her but her deep thoughts translates to the viewers that she realizes Kamala's determination to break the 'invisible' chain free and liberate her future generations.

Respect grew many folds on my maid's daughter after witnessing Kamala's turmoil within herself. Thanks to the pandemic, house helps are becoming an scenario of the past and like western countries we have adapted to live with minimal assistance. Under the disguise of providing livelihood to the under privileged in the name of maintaining household helpers, somewhere, makes us these dependent comfort mongers, that as a society we have collectively failed to see what their ultimate choices of life are in the first place. An eye opener. Credits to the maker and his team.