shor

i woke up early to finish watching manoj kumar’s over the top philosophical treatise on life’s little ironies ‘shor’. knowing no such thing as subtlety he hammers home bittersweet contradictions- a man who cant stand the noise of the city and ends up deaf, a boy who cant speak and when he does his father ant hear him, a mill workers strike and mill owners debts that end up closing the mill- the perpetual swing between happiness and utter pathos continues unabated throughout, even as our hero suffers through it all steadfast with his hand over his face. even when the rain does finally come it brings with it equal measures of sensuality (how he lingers over those drenched bodies!) and pain (roof tops leak as poor people shiver in the cold). in between incredibly conceived sequences- like the opening montage or the incredible picturization of ‘ek pyar ka nagma hai’ (on the beach with nanda through filters and mirrors) are tedious plot twists underlining and highlighting and making bold (and in italics) the premise of the film. the comedy sub sub plot is unnecessary and annoying. jaya bhaduri plays a role she almost redoes in zanzeer a year later and a sher khan pathan best friend also appears here before the amitabh bachchan film. youtube clip of ek pyar ka nagma here.

also a quick art note; shreyas karle’s pseudo-naïve science about the ordinary in the encounters yesterday. playful and irreverent.