The name Majid Majidi gets immediately associated with the classic Iranian cult film “Baran” – an unimaginable and unhindered love story of an Afghan migrant labour girl Baran and an Iranian boy Lateef. The threads of the socio-political situation get woven around throughout in an almost silent film and magic emanates from the two young characters playing the roles of their lifetime. A story filled with political undertones exploring the societal values of migrated Afghanis, overcome by the insurmountably well-articulated love between the two pure souls.
Cut to 2018. After delivering a range of memorable films like “The Children of Heaven”, “Songs of Sparrow” and “The Color Paradise”, the maverick filmmaker tries his hand with a Hindi film, “Beyond the Clouds”. Based on a city he never knew, a country he has never lived in, featuring characters he has never faced in a language that he never spoke!
The result – a disastrous mix of melodramatic sequences put together in a story that is highly inspired by the cliches of Bollywood. A colossal effort in vain, as the film gets lost in translation.
The film lets you get into the underbelly of five difficult places to be in the city. A local drug mafia adda, the bustling Dhobi ghat, an amorous whore house, a women’s correctional home and the clumsiest of them all, a government hospital.
The very first shot of the film tells you what exactly you can expect from this two-hour long exercise in melancholy. A lanky hipster figure (Ishan Khattar), walks right across the bustling highway on a busy Mumbai morning, crossing the shoddy slums underneath it. The typical rich and poor motif used a thousand times over in Bollywood films over the years.
Coming back to the narrative, Aamir is a drug dealer, who along with his sister Taara, had been subjected to physical abuse by their father. Aamir runs from his house and finds solace in the underbelly of the bustling drug trade in Mumbai. Both Aamir and Taara meet when the police chase Aamir through the narrow lanes of Mumbai in one of their raids.
The beautiful chase sequence is perfectly orchestrated with the rhythmic beats of a tabla, which gives you a sense that this can only and only come from the maverick AR Rahman.
From here on, the film’s narrative goes nowhere. Taara gets accused of attempted murder, lands in jail. Aamir gets the responsibility of keeping Akshi (Gautam Ghosh) alive, whom Taara is accused of attempting to kill. Taara gets Chotu, a fellow inmate’s son, in her correction hall and Aamir gets to meet the family of Akshi.
The film tries pretty hard to convince the audience by making them relate to the younger characters; a reminder of their own estranged childhood that they wanted to fix through them. A new beginning is sought in a fairly complex situation in an even more complex city.
The film was originally written in Persian by Majid Majidi and the Hindi dialogues are written by another maverick filmmaker from India, Vishal Bhardwaj. Now, I am not sure how much of the original film has been translated into Hindi, but some dialogues in the film are awful. Especially when uttered by debutants Ishaan and Malavika.
Throughout the film, the actors took instruction from an interpreter on the set that Majidi had while working on “Beyond the Clouds”.
Picture this! A director watching a particular scene unfolding on his monitor, listening to the dialogues uttered while shooting! He doesn’t know the tonal implications of the uttered words by his actors. He doesn’t know the tinge of melodrama in the actor’s voice. He doesn’t know what they have said wrong in a particular take!
“Beyond the Clouds” has suffered from exactly the same problem. Malavika, in her character of Taara has gone too overboard while delivering her dialogues. It gets utterly difficult to understand her character with the kind of performance she has put in. Add to that, the immensely out of the place dubbing of some of the dialogues. Ishaan Khattar, on the contrary, looks promising in the film, somehow trying to be in the skin of this confused and soft-hearted character of Aamir.
The film is not entirely filled with flaws. The music of AR Rahman and the overall sound design of Shajith Koyeri have done wonders in quite a few well-crafted sequences in the film. Veteran cinematographer Anil Mehta has given a fresh look to the overtly used cityscape of Mumbai too, making it a pleasant watch. Majidi has handled the kids in the film with utter brilliance. The shots where the kids had to express a scene with their emotions instead of spoken words are the only ones when you feel connected to the film.
Foreign filmmakers are often criticised for showcasing the poorer contours of the country, which is still somehow shackled by the afterthoughts of neocolonialism. In a Q&A session, one such critic asked Majidi as to why he chose to show poor people of the city and focus the film on them? In an interesting reply, Majidi said, “Because I have always believed in giving voice to the powerless, through my films.”
“Beyond the Clouds” tries to present to you the voice of the marginalised but leaves the necessary politics behind.