Cineflections-54
Asha Jaoar Majhe – (Labor of Love) – 2014,
Bengali
-Manjula Jonnalagadda
“Beware the barrenness of a busy life.” – Socrates
Asha Jaoar Majhe is a film made by Aditya Vikram Sengupta. The film premiered at the 11th Venice Days Film Festival. It won the Indira Gandhi Award for the Best Debut film, and the Best Audiography award at the National Film Awards. It also won a few awards including the awards at the New York Indian Film festival, and the Marrakesh Film Festival.
Aditya Vikram Sengupta started his career at an Indian Television channel called Channel [V] as a creative director. Asha Jaoar Majhe is his first film as a director. He made two more films Jonaki and Once Upon a Time in Calcutta. All his films have won several international awards.
The film opens with a woman leaving her home for work. She goes to work while her husband drinks tea, eats a snack, and naps. The woman works at a factory that makes purses. As she goes about her work, her husband wakes up from his nap, runs some errands, comes back home, eats lunch and sleeps. He wakes up, dresses up and leaves for work. He works at a printing press during the night. His wife comes back home, eats dinner and sleeps. She wakes up next morning, goes on about morning chores, then her husband returns home. They share a tender moment and then the wife leaves for work.
The film is devoid of any drama. The wife and husband are the only characters in the film. Nothing happens, it is everyday life. We don’t learn anything about the couple. We don’t even know their names. But you don’t have to know anything about the couple to enjoy this film.
The wife and husband are very different people. She likes the fan at high speed, he likes it slower. She prepares food with less salt, he adds salt to his food. They also complement each other metaphorically. He soaks clothes to be washed, she washes them and he dries them. He shops for groceries, she fills them in the containers. She struggles with a safety pin to secure her sari, he helps her. Love doesn’t mean romance, it is all about looking after each other.
The film makes very subtle comments about corporate greed as well. The labor force goes on a strike at a factory nearby and the owners shut the factory down citing a recession. We know about this from the background noise.
Most cities in India have very high commute times. It is not easy to get a house near one’s workplace. Commuting to work is a hassle, the wife has to take a tram and bus to get to her workplace. Even after that she can barely reach her office at her start time. When couples work, there is barely any time for them to interact. If they work at opposite times of the day, they can see each other only for a few minutes.
The film has no dialogue. It is just ambient noise and some songs playing in the background. The film wants you to be part of their life, that’s what you will be. It is also extremely well acted!
The film is beautifully shot! It is not just in the sunset, but even the mundane task of filling up groceries in a container is made to look beautiful! It makes me think that there is a lot of beauty in every task we perform, we just have to see it.
When I watched this film a while back at the South Asian Film Festival in San Francisco, it blew my mind! This is a film, you don’t have to know anything about but just experience, trust me it will be unforgettable!
Watch this film to see how beautiful a mundane day can be.
*****
Manjula Jonnalagadda is from Hamsavaram, East Godavari Dist, and lives in Los Altos, CA. She is a Techie by profession and complex by nature. She loves to read; Chekhov, Kafka, KoKu and Sankaramanchi are among her long list of favorites. She is serious about films, and a regular at a few local Film festivals. Her other interests are quizzing and hiking. While she enjoys western classical music and all kind of vegetarian food sans beans and fake meat, she seeks comfort in Carnatic music and curd rice.