Feature film – Wakya

Length – 120 minutes

Director – Deepak Kadam

Venue- Dr D. Y. Patil Auditorium, Nerul, Navi Mumbai

(From the Navi Mumbai International Film Festival)

The opening credits set the tone. Names appear on parchment shaking to the sound of drums throbbing with a peculiar slant, highlighting tense cadences that stretch throughout the film.

The setting is contemporary rural Maharashtra, in a village in the Sangamner district. It is a story of a family – an elderly couple Pandba and Rakhma (Rajdatta and Prema Kiran, their son Ghumya (Abhijit Kulkarni), daughter-in-law Sushi (Priyanka Dnyanlakshmi) and four year old grandson Sonya. The protagonist Ghumya is a young man who hails from a long line of performers who are devotees of the goddess Mari. He is the primary breadwinner who goes around villages singing praises of the goddess and doubles up as a clairvoyant and faith healer. He claims to get possessed by the goddess and in that state delivers remedies for illnesses and other troubles that the villagers share with him. He enjoys a lot of respect among the illiterate villagers and elicits some ridicule among the not –so-devout. Belonging to the nomadic tribe called ‘Potraj’, the family is treated sometimes with awe and at other times with disdain by different groups.

In the course of an otherwise ordinary day, Ghumya sees his son Sonya looking longingly at children in a school. A desire to make his son live a life of dignity which he knows is possible only through school education, takes shape within him. He takes it upon himself to realise this dream. This dream takes him on a depressing journey through the maze of government offices and the confusing requirements. The plight of one who does not belong to mainstream society and the very nature of his lifestyle make for a build-up of tension that would have easily been avoided if…. and the movie makes you ask yourself about these very ‘if’s. The sometimes simplistic portrayals all converge on the looming issue of how the existing different strata of our society are living in parallel yet disconnected worlds and even democracy has its shortcomings in a system which hasn’t been able to live up to its real ideals.

The way the family makes a living is depicted with no compromises on the entanglement of the profession and the visuals are disturbingly true-to-life. The struggle to make a living off alms, the travails of an uncertain tomorrow and the absence of a solid roof above their heads is portrayed with clarity and no compromise is made by softening the edges of the issue. Poverty is neither romantic nor beautiful and the director shows it as it is.

In the course of an otherwise ordinary day, Ghumya sees his son Sonya looking longingly at children in a school. A desire to make his son live a life of dignity which he knows is possible only through school education, takes shape within him. He takes it upon himself to realise this dream. This dream takes him on a depressing journey through the maze of government offices and the confusing requirements. The plight of one who does not belong to mainstream society and the very nature of his lifestyle make for a build-up of tension that would have easily been avoided if….and the movie makes you ask yourself about these very ‘if’s. The sometimes simplistic portrayals all converge on the looming issue of how the existing different strata of our society are living in parallel yet disconnected worlds and even democracy has its shortcomings in a system which hasn’t been able to live up to its real ideals.

The cycle of hope and disappointment mirrors life closely and therein is the strength of the presentation. One is riveted to the screen and empathy comes easily. The visual metaphors blend into the storyline and the few songs help in conveying the mood of the tale effectively. The music is intense and lyrics well chosen, giving them a standalone value.

Each character is well etched out and despite some clichéd ones and a couple of not-so-convincing actors, the core team of actors is almost flawless in its performances. The father and the son excel in their portrayals and the lead actor clearly stands out throughout the length of the film. The ebb and fall of hope, the anguish of the characters in not being understood, the shades of ridicule felt by the protagonist, the helplessness of a woman in a tricky situation where existing patriarchal systems threaten to stifle, all come out through the taut storyline. The viewer’s attention is not allowed to stray and the building up of the tale to a crescendo is handled very sensitively.

The use of the physical ambience to reflect moods and the persistent focus on the central characters convey the craft of the cinematographer in giving it an edge. The background score is sometimes felt to be a tad overwhelming and could have been easily been toned down. The use of the local dialect makes the narrative authentic, though not all the actors are able to pull it off very well.

Going beyond the technicalities, this film manages to put forth a topical issue with a sensitivity rarely found in mainstream cinema. The director Deepak Kadam, has pulled off a stunning narrative that does the task of pushing a relevant but mostly ignored social issue- that of the very real plight of the nomadic tribes of our country.

‘Wakya’ is the plural of the Marathi word ‘waki’ which is a type of heavyset metal anklet, a symbol of the tribe’s dedication to the goddess Mari. This is both an ornament and a burden. The world of the simpleton Ghumya vacillates between these two ends of reality- he reels as he is caught in the opposing pulls of tradition and modernity, an old versus a new paradigm of identity, leaves you stunned and quite simply, struggling for words.

I sincerely hope that this beautifully narrated tale manages to get a theatre release.