Epiphany through a Photograph
I saw Ritesh Batra's Photograph last summer
honestly it went over my head. I just couldn't understand what to get from that minimalist storytelling.
But something fascinating happened on the second visit.
There is a sequence when one of his chawlmate was convincing Dadi how Miloni (Nawaz's pretending fiancee) would adjust in their world with due time. The camera then focuses on Nawaaz lying supine on the floor turning sideways, eyes wide open with a bleak face. The camera was still for some time with the subtle background score.
Watching that scene I started thinking, what must he be feeling?
Aware of his class stature, it can never happen in his wildest of dreams. He can never confess his feelings to her even if he wanted to. She can never be a part of the world to which he belonged.
All this came to my mind when I tried and put some effort to derive meanings from a subtle sequence. This kind of scene would previously
make me rush to the conclusion that it is just a bland scene nothing to take from it.
Mainstream cinema has habituated us to spoonfeeding emotions, but the real world is quite different, people don't express easily, there is no background score or song to make you understand what the person is going through. You have to be still for some time, put some effort to step into someone's shoes.
That's the reason this kind of storytelling is important. That day I realized that empathy is a skill that needs to be inculcated and these kinds of stories can nurture that skill.
honestly it went over my head. I just couldn't understand what to get from that minimalist storytelling.
But something fascinating happened on the second visit.
There is a sequence when one of his chawlmate was convincing Dadi how Miloni (Nawaz's pretending fiancee) would adjust in their world with due time. The camera then focuses on Nawaaz lying supine on the floor turning sideways, eyes wide open with a bleak face. The camera was still for some time with the subtle background score.
Watching that scene I started thinking, what must he be feeling?
Aware of his class stature, it can never happen in his wildest of dreams. He can never confess his feelings to her even if he wanted to. She can never be a part of the world to which he belonged.
All this came to my mind when I tried and put some effort to derive meanings from a subtle sequence. This kind of scene would previously
Mainstream cinema has habituated us to spoonfeeding emotions, but the real world is quite different, people don't express easily, there is no background score or song to make you understand what the person is going through. You have to be still for some time, put some effort to step into someone's shoes.
That's the reason this kind of storytelling is important. That day I realized that empathy is a skill that needs to be inculcated and these kinds of stories can nurture that skill.
- Ujjwal Narayan
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