Tasher Ghawr Movie Review: — A story of loneliness captured through the eyes of a Hitchcock frame.
This is the story that the 46-minute Bengali film Tasher Ghawr (A house of cards) tells. What is it like to be a housewife forced to be at home with a husband she has disliked for a long time, a man who is having an affair, beats her sometimes and rapes daily?
Perhaps it is mutual dislike. But we only see and hear the point of view of Sujata, played by Swastika Mukherjee. The film is a solo act by Mukherjee, she is the only person you see and hear on screen. The husband’s face is never shown though his voice is heard, ordering her to serve food. There is a mother-in-law who appears for a moment on screen but has no spoken lines.
The story is set in the hours from breakfast to lunch of one locked-down day, but goes back and forth months and years fluidly as Sujata recounts her marriage, her miscarriages, the solitude she relishes as her husband embarked on his affair. Throughout this, we see her dusting cushions, tidying up the flat, prepping food, baking cakes to poison the rats, carefully raising the whistle of the pressure cooker to let out steam.
The film uses the device of Sujata speaking to us, the viewers, directly but you get the sense that she is conversing with herself, arranging her thoughts, processing her feelings. This is what she probably does on normal days, but the lock down has savaged her oases of quiet pleasures because her husband is always demanding something to eat. She starts prepping lunch even before breakfast is over. She sips a cup of tea while serving her husband breakfast, but doesn’t eat herself.
This is an offbeat movie, the concept and the metaphorical nature of the main character is really praiseworthy, her witty nature alongside her brilliant performance is breathtaking. Most of the people who have watched this movie will probably say that there’s only one character, I would say otherwise, if you look closely you will see the various characters present playing their part in advancing the story. Despite being confined to a home this movie feels shockingly fast, the pacing was really incredible. The cinematography was really really calm and made me believe more into the eerie nature of the surrounding, it doesn’t look like a cheap web series, the muted colors and lack of contrast matches well, camera placement and movement were also not noticeable (which is a good thing, we don’t want camera movements to draw attention to themselves). The songs and the snow matched with the tone.
Though I have some nitpicks, which are really very minute, still I am very sure this is altogether a very different approach in terms of the making. I thoroughly enjoyed this film.
