Aligarh Review

 

There was an era of films based completely on ‘a hero and a villain’, and then came the complete ‘Romantic’ era along with the ‘Patriotic’ one too but now it is an era dedicated to pure classy biopics. Such excellence is infused in the biopics these days that they are bound to become a must watch.

Siras (Manoj Bajpayee) is a Professor of Marathi at Aligarh University and is suspended on the charges of ‘gross conduct’ with a rickshaw puller within the premises of the university. A Journalist, Deepu (Rajkummar Rao) questions the university by citing ‘right to privacy’ and vows to help Siras in his struggle against a world which looks down upon homosexuality.

Casting director, Mukesh Chabbra, is best known for his works just like these as he again casts the perfect people for the role. Rajkummar Rao is Hansal Mehta’s favourite as he is casted the third time in a row in a Hansal film; and Rao doesn’t let him down ever. Rao’s spirited portrayal of the enthusiastic journalist, who knows what his job is, provides perfection to the role. Rao acts with diversity in moods which adds realism to his role; irritated by others in his room or by the motor noise, everything performed by him is with ease and excellence.

Manoj Bajpayee is surely the show-stealer with his portrayal of Siras as he gets under the skin of the character as if he is exactly the person whom he is portraying. His scenes of shyness add charm to his charismatic performance throughout. The way he acts in the long shot of him listening to Lata Mangeshkar’s ‘Aap ki nazron ne samjha’ is par excellence as it appears as if we really are sitting next to him and getting high on alcohol and the relatable song (the song speaks of being capable of being loved, something which Siras never thought until he met his partner). The last scene tears in his eyes are so realistic that your hearts might stop while feeling his pain. He proves his mettle every time and now he has delivered a milestone performance of his career.

But not always would a ‘One-man-army’ work as the other departments of the biopic falter time to time. The background score doesn’t help much, considering such long shots. Long shots should be accompanied by depth of music to soak-in the audience but it doesn’t happen here much. Instead we are also subjected to abrupt transition in timelines which appear as if somebody just skipped a part. Even though the film might have been run in one go at the film festivals, still the editor Apurva Asrani should have deduced by the slow paced film that such a film might not run without an intermission at Indian theatres. He should have opted for a smooth intermission rather than such an abrupt one which seemed as it is forced-in (Again background score could have helped in building up this momentum); at times even the setting is not clear, transitions in cities is very abrupt, plain poor editing.

The screenplay by Apurva Asrani is good even though it is slow paced as such sensitive topic deserves to be felt deeply and slow pace helps us feel for the pain of the protagonist. The dialogues were good and hard-hitting and will linger in your mind for long such as this one ‘Poetry is found in the silences and pauses of its words’.

The director, Hansal Mehta has a thing for gloomy stories, stories which show us the real face of society and leave us really sad and melancholic. Mehta’s ‘Aligarh’ is different from his other works in a way that it has really-really long shots which might make this film liked by fewer than most other biopics; surprisingly the film is of exact 120 minutes but it feels like a 3-hour drama and that too in the first half. Moreover, there are lot of continuity errors in scenes; something not expected by a director of this calibre.

The director of photography (cinematographer) does the most splendid job in technical department as right at the start when ‘Homosexuality was decriminalised in 2009’ flashes, a scene, where Siras with his friend comes through the fog to his house, is shot, the scene has a fine philosophical touch to it as it explains his struggle to meet his sexual needs; equal appreciation to Hansal for this shot too. And even the person who arranged the opening credits is to be credited as this was the longest shot of the film and right when you are in awe of the cinematography and ask ‘Who is the cinematographer’, then appears the name in big and bold, Satya Rai Nagpaul. Hansal uses less movement of camera which tests the actors too and proves the mettle of both actor and director.

There have been films based on homosexuality in Bollywood like ‘Dostana’ and ‘Ajeeb Dastaan Hai Ye’ from ‘Bombay Talkies’ but none does more justice to them other than ‘Aligarh’. The scene where heterosexual and homosexual love is shown in a montage is amazingly shot and directed and even though the editing is poor and music isn’t of much help, the cinematography, direction (to little extent) and acting (Surely) keep this film still a must watch.