Notes

Masaan (meaning crematorium) captures the essence of a city which in the Indian mindset is synonymous with life and death. This Cannes winner is a poignant portrayal of the challenges imposed by society that a person has to overcome. Neeraj Ghyawan in his debut feature does justice to Varun Grover’s brilliant and tightly written screenplay.
This movie shows us an Indian city as it really is, its beauty and ugliness to be savoured equally. Masaan’s depiction of Varanasi doesn’t involve the voyeuristic chillum-smoking, bhajan singing crowd that attracts the backpackers from the West. It shows us the lives of the people who call Kashi their home. It is raw and visceral and in this fact lies the beauty of Masaan.
The cinematography, by Avinash Arun Dhaware, is a sight to behold. Several important moments of the film revolve around the Ganges and it is shown as not just any ordinary river but as an entity possessing beauty, character and mystique. Although the movie raises the topics of gender and caste discrimination, corruption and patriarchy, Masaan isn’t about any of these. Masaan is about emotions, it is about the indomitable human spirit that lies in each one of us.
Masaan is a worthy example of hyperlink cinema, that is, it follows two seemingly separate stories that eventually converge. The stories are about a man and a woman. The woman is Devi, portrayed by a brilliant Richa Chadda. The man is Deepak, played by an earnest Vicky Kaushal in his debut performance. Both the characters want to find love. Both end up doing things that usually bring shame to their families – she by exploring premarital sex and he, by falling in love with an upper-caste girl. Both Deepak and Devi offer their loved ones’ memento, a ring and a gift-wrapped box, to the river. In many ways, Deepak and Devi are two sides of the same coin, a coin that that wants to be in a perpetual state of rotation, refusing to be defined.
It is said that when a person faces a crucible in their life, they either emerge stronger from it, or they die in the crucible, or they stay in the pit because the pain is the only thing familiar to them. Both Devi and Deepak face unimaginable grief and both manage to come out stronger from there. Vicky Kaushal is a revelation and his Deepak brings the right amount of innocence and honesty on screen. Richa Chadda’s Devi might come off as a bit cold in the initial part of the film but she grows on you eventually. You come to respect her strength and her resolve. The film doesn’t judge any of its characters, all of them are humanized to an extent that you can empathize with their actions.
The two plotlines of Devi and Deepak meet at not only one, but at several points in the movie’s 109 minute run time. The two characters finally meet in Allahabad. The closing shot is of the two of them, sitting on a boat, heading towards the ‘Sangam’, the confluence of two rivers, symbolizing the merging of their stories.
To sum it up, Masaan isn’t just a film, it is a cinematic experience. You see these characters at their highest and lowest points and form an emotional bond with them. Masaan celebrates the human spirit, its strength, its resilience and its warmth. It is definitely a must-watch film for any viewer who appreciates the worth of a good story well told.