An offbeat ode to Shahjahanabad

Theatre veteran Anamika Haksar’s debut film is a novel work of creative fiction that presents a kaleidoscopic view of Old Delhi.
Debutant Filmmaker Anamika Haksar. (File Photo)
Debutant Filmmaker Anamika Haksar. (File Photo)

Since the last week-and-a-half, several film enthusiasts from Delhi-NCR have been seen flocking to cinema halls—precisely Delite Cinema, Daryaganj, PVR Promenade, Vasant Kunj, and PVR, Noida. Interestingly, it is not any high-grossing Bollywood blockbuster that’s taking everyone back to the theatres. The film in question is Ghode Ko Jalebi Khilane Le Ja Riya Hun—an experimental film made on a meagre budget. Directed by theatre veteran and debutant filmmaker Anamika Haksar, this creative fiction—it was completed in 2018 but the team was unable to release the film due to lack of budgets—has received immense love in six Indian cities where it was released last week by producer Shiladitya Bora’s Platoon Distribution. Transcending boundaries of conventional storytelling, Haksar’s 124-minute film draws from various genres including fiction, magic realism, ethnography, and, if one were to study further, several other techniques. The aim of Ghode Ko Jalebi… is pretty simple: documenting the lives and dreams of the people residing in Old Delhi. The result, however, is disoriented, dark, unthinkable, and at times, uncomfortably comical; a layered piece that has immense food for thought to offer the viewer. Reacting to the response the film has received, Haksar, shares, “I can’t believe that the film has received so much love. I did think people would find it interesting but this has been overwhelming.”

A tour through Old Delhi

Ghode ko Jalebi… is centred on the lives of four locals of Delhi-6: Patru (Ravindra Sahu), a pickpocket; Chhadami (Raghubir Yadav), a snacks vendor; Lal Bihari (Gopalan), a daily wage labourer; and Akash (Lokesh Jain), a tourist guide who conducts heritage walks. The film has been made over a period of seven years over which Haksar and her team conducted several interviews with people—daily wage workers, pickpockets, drug addicts, rickshaw pullers, vendors, and more—asking them questions about their dreams, fears, lives etc., getting a personal insight into their world which was later juxtaposed with fiction. Dreams of the underbelly make an important subject that the film explores. “Dreams open a gateway to understand where a person is. I felt that will tell you what is happening in the mind of our people,” explains the 63 year old when asked why she focused on this aspect in the film.

Of all the things, what strikes the viewer first is the title. Decades ago, Haksar had heard this idiom from her aunt who had in turn heard this from a tonga driver in Old Delhi where she went to learn Hindustani classical music. “It [the idiom] stuck with me. When I started writing it, I was like this is the title of the film. It is idiomatic, it describes the city, it is by someone who is a part of the whole culture,” shares Haksar.

Putting the ‘real’ in surreal

A prime achievement of Ghode Ko Jalebi… is that it takes us through the lives of the economically-vulnerable section by neither making it seem like poverty porn nor stereotyping them as is usually done in mainstream cinema. Haksar comments on this, “That has a lot to do with one’s own orientation… My sister is a human rights lawyer and has always been in touch with ordinary people. From her I have learnt in terms of respecting people. So, you are not talking about them out of pity, which is what I knew was important in the film.”

The film is an anti-narrative, which portrays the routine chaos of Old Delhi with tenderness without romanticising it. The added animation brings you closer to the realities. This non-linear narrative is also a result of Haksar’s extensive theatre practice wherein she had consistently scripted plays with similar narratives. “I don’t find that this beginning, middle, end does justice to life because I don’t feel life is that.” The viewer will also realise that Ghode Ko Jalebi… is political; it comments upon the increasing urbanisation of Purani Dilli, the displacement of the locals, and the consequent loss of history and culture. From the striking visual metaphors to the plot structure, there is too much to take away from the film for which Ghode ko Jalebi… cannot be made sense of but just felt.

What the viewers think:

‘Ghode Ko Jalebi…’ is the utopia of filmmaking, a masterclass in how to navigate around a bunch of stories without making the pain of your character central, but moving on with an empathetic gaze while also avoiding poverty porn. There is poetry, sometimes happiness, hope of revolution, dreams, and still none of this adds any meaning to their sufferings; at times it feels as if these extra elements were never made for their existence.

- Manibhushan, 20, Noida

The first ten minutes of the film set the tone right. The film is surreal and absurd. The director has created some striking visuals, following the idea of ‘show, don’t tell’. There is a dream sequence that is very similar to a shot in Soviet filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky’s The Mirror. I haven't seen something so innovative in a while.

- Shorya Vashisht, 21, Pitampura

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