Direction: Unni Vijayan
Actors: Adil Hussain, Maya Tideman
Rating: ***
Actors: Adil Hussain, Maya Tideman
Rating: ***
A father investigating the ‘accident’ that made her
daughter end up in coma unravels horrifying truths. A fictitious coastal
village in Tamil Nadu, called Minjikapuram, is the microcosm of an India
steeped in patriarchy, where gender discrimination and sex selection is
rampant. It’s a world we pretend doesn’t exist; or belongs in newspaper
reports, far from our glossy, urban lives. Lessons in Forgetting makes you
confront these uncomfortable realities, with honesty, even if not the impact or
shock value that say, a Dibakar Banerjee managed with Love, Sex Aur Dhokha
(2010).
In certain ways, Malayali director Unni Vijayan’s 2012
National Award Winner (best English feature film) is the antithesis of a
Bollywood potboiler – it lacks in production value (made, obviously, on a
shoestring budget); the screenplay (adapted from Anita Nair’s novel by the same
name) is clunky, with dialogue that works on pages, but not on film; and the
actors playing fringe characters belong in a film school project.
Yet, the central story is powerful. And the characters
have a human frailty that makes them believable. Smrithi (Maya Tideman) chances
upon illegal activities at Minjikapuram when she travels there with a street
play. She wants to fight it, even though her boyfriend discourages her. We
learn the story through flashbacks, as Smrithi’s father, Jak (Adil Hussain),
pieces things together. In the end, the truth provides a sense of closure, if
not a solution.
This is a film made for festivals. If it makes money at
the box office, even the producers will be surprised. For that, you need masala,
and a Salman Khan-like hero who will beat up the baddies, save the day and come
away looking smug.
-Sarit Ray
