Masaan and the changing face of India

Masaan

Before watching Masaan I got acquinted with Neeraj Ghawayan’s work through his short film titled “Shor” in  an experimental film“Shorts”. “Shor” explored a much talked about dimension in a man – woman relationship. The ego hassle which every woman has to tackle when she is the unacknowledged “lady of the house”  while all her man  manages to do is doubt her motives. The  chauvinist in every man comes alive with a working woman in house and more so when he is being instigated by his mother.  Well, this typical scenario takes another level when Ghawayan adds the other side of human emotion to it.  Among all the chaos  the relationship which has  gone sour suddenly revives itself when it faces a momentary  threat  of death.  And that’s how our protagonist get his salvation....in Love and Forgiveness. 

Love in its essence is never lost. It’s the chaos around us with which we are so busy  that we forget to live. So with Masaan Ghawayan again explores this theme but this time in a broader context and in a bigger canvas. I read somewhere that Masaan is the colloquial usage of the Sanskrit word “Shamshaan” . Set in Benaras , Masaan actually unmasks this ancient city and reveals the layers of undeniable  transformations it has been going through for a long time. The age old orders of life come in conflict with changing times and ever altering human needs and desires.

In India even before a child is born he/ she is stamped with an identity. That identity constitutes a spectrum  of definitions. One is defined by religion, caste, creed, colour, class  and what not. And the fact that even in 2015 a large section of people still hold on to these outlandish set of ideas in the name of “custom”, “dharma”, “riti-riyaz”, “culture” , “sanskriti” and other heavy-sounding words is what pushes India back in the dark age. But Masaan not only deconstructs but also breaks what our all “riti-riyaaz” taught us to do. Be it ambitious and bold Devi Pathak (Richa Chadha) who is ever assertive of her decisions or dreamy and hopeful Deepak (Vicky Kaushal) who aspires to lead a life completely different from what is meant for him.  
Masaan shows a new India. An emerging India where you can’t  put people in tight boxes with bundles of tags given by the society which continuously strangle the idea of individualism. The high walls of a structured society defined by caste, class and creed fall apart with the coming of technology.  Ghawayan has used technology to show how it connects , re-connects, revives, inspires , gives hope and at the same time threatens to destroy us. 

What I love most about this film is, it seamlessly transcends everyday human lives in to something extraordinarily beautiful.  Quintessentially Masaan is a piece of poetry by Varun Grover who touches a continuum of human emotions through this film. Be it love, aspiration, greed, redemption or desire to live a life going beyond what has been already decided by the society. Going by the tagline, Masaan truely celebrates life, death and everything in between. It celebrates the journey of human survival in its core. Neeraj Ghwayan surely visualises and captures it with all his heart. And trust me given the condition India is in right now, we are in dire need of such movies to make people understand what we should ideally aspire to be .