The Pinkvilla Review: Masaan

By Team Pinkvilla

Updated on Jul 27, 2015 | 09:10 PM IST | 5.7M

Masaan, that translates to crematorium or shamshan, is far from the gloomy tinge of death its title suggests. On the contrary, Masaan is almost like Pablo Neruda's poetry painted on screen, looking for what lies between the 'shadow and soul'. The debutant director Neeraj Ghaywan, uses a freehand in exploring a lot more than his writer Varun Grover had scribbled on paper. The satiating product is equally riveting and heartbreaking, coloured with balanced shades of love and loss.

Two parallel tracks take the center stage in the film. While 'jigyasa' compels a feisty lady to explore sex in a shady hotel room in one, a young couple find caste towering over love in their lives in the second. But both these stories brings forth Grover's nuanced understanding of human characters, which precedes his age. Neeraj intimately fills each frame with fresh progressive thinking juxtaposing it with the conventional backdrop of Benaras. There is a keen sense of reluctance in each of its characters, who refuse to subject themselves to barriers of casteist stratification of society or moral hypocrisies that non-metropolitan India is still plagued with. The ignominy Devi's (Richa Chadda) respectable father Vidyadhar Pathak (played by Sanjay Mishra) is put through is just a hint at how in rural India cops extorts moolah from hapless people on the pretext of safeguarding the law of the society. Afterall, moral policing is more a part of their duty in those pockets of the country.

Richa Chadda owns Devi's character who is overcome more by guilt than by the shame her sexcapade entailed. She plays it fiercely with passion that makes Devi volatile, charming and strong.

Parallely, an unlikely romance tenderly unfolds between a young couple. Neeraj keeps the story breezy and fresh, making his characters fall in love over long phone talks and adorable Facebook chats. But their innocent love falls prey to the diktats of a hostile society torn apart by hatred.

Masaan is poignant and has a matured voice, told with gravity bringing forth a story that views Benaras in its most uninhibited portrayal on screen till date. Ganges is almost like a character that purges the story's flaws, leaving a serene after-effect. On the banks of the river, on its ghats, a new generation is emerging whose outlook towards society is above the idiosyncrasies of the generation before theirs.

Its adept casting ensures brilliant performances from each of its actors - be it Richa Chadda or Sanjay Mishra and even the debutants Shweta and Vicky, each of them breathe life into what they play.

It is an engrossing watch till its tottering climax hits us. The film ends on a disappointingly contrived note that certainly doesn't do justice to its orchestration. But that is hardly enough to take away from the film its highs.

Masaan seamlessly binds multiple well-developed themes in the same narrative and swells at its lyrical depiction of Benaras, telling a layered story of how modern thinking still continues to breathe in the constricted, repressed ambience of small-towns.

Like a character points out, Yahan aana aasaan hai, yahan se jaana mushkil... The film has the same lingering effect that will haunt you long after curtains come down on its end credits.

We rate the film a 70% on the Pinkvilla Movie Meter.