Prashant Nair is an essayist. His feature films—Delhi in a Day, Umrika—give the sense of an argument being raised. There’s humour in them, but often the works feel like sociological texts. Delineating abstract concepts—issues of caste, colour, nationality, social mobility—is a critic’s bread and butter, but we also like character and detail. It’s the latter department I wish Prashant worked a little harder at.
His latest Tryst with Destiny is out now. Streaming on SonyLIV, the anthology is inspired by Jawaharlal Nehru’s 1947 speech; the individual episodes, four in all, are coded to the tricolour. There are other symbols: peacocks, tigers, hockey. It is a civics book view of India, a chance for foreign viewers to contextualise the stories.
Fair and fine
Mudiraj, a billionaire played by Ashish Vidyarthi, has dark skin. “Kala jamun,” flies a slur, as he wrestles two security guards in the sand. Achingly alarmed about his complexion, he strong-arms a rich fair chap to marry his daughter. Ashish’s stance is menacing, but is also let down by an insistent score. It is also absurd that Mudiraj would suddenly be so awakened about his complexion. Is he lying about his chaiwala origins?
The river
A lower-caste family subsists on the scraps of a village. The husband (Vineet Kumar Singh), pulls a cart into town. At night, he trails away from the hut, fixing his gaze on distant stars. It’s a beautiful moment, duly replaced by the horror we feel in our bones. Cinematographer Avinash Arun holds a shot for three minutes without leaning into artifice. Prashant’s use of contextual sounds is precise, and he finds a relieving mechanism near the end. The family goes on a day trip. They return by the cart. “Can we eat mangoes forever?” a child asks her father.
One BHK
A policeman and his mistress have gone house hunting. “Isn’t the ceiling too low?” grumbles Kuber, played by Jaideep Ahlawat. Set in Mumbai, this is the pulpiest of the lot, with Kuber inserting himself in a heist that goes south. I found the film swinging between thriller and condensed character study. A restaurant sequence plays out like a nightmare in green, from Jaideep’s shirt colour to the Edamame seeds. As our hero stretches out on a parking lot floor, in the penultimate scene, it’s a sign of the character—as well the film—hitting a dead-end.
A beast within
Amit Sial plays a local who, after a man-eater is caught in his area, decides to intervene. He ambushes the forest officer (Geetanjali Thapa) and her team, leading to a night’s standoff. It is a particularly Indian standoff—you bet one of them sleeps off—and wreaks disaster. The observation isn’t fresh, and Prashant has to cut the film short for a coda. Though it may argue otherwise, Tryst with Destiny never sets its characters free. It becomes, in itself, a boundary.
Tryst with Destiny
Cast:Ashish Vidyarthi, Suhasini Maniratnam, Vineet Kumar Singh, Kani Kusruti, Jaideep Ahlawat, Palomi Ghosh, Amit Sial, Geetanjali Thapa
Director:Prashant Nair
Streaming on:SonyLIV