Overkill of a genre is an art mastered by film-makers in India. Every genre, from the wedding documentaries to the love stories to the action flicks are churned out so iteratively that they slowly get kayoed into the same purl of scenes and dialogues after a few weeks making you practically sick in the stomach. That same overkill had invaded this relative new style of film-making, so called as the ’’Indian diaspora’’.
Refreshing it was, but a few years ago. With the same issues (cultural clashes, generation gaps, Indian whim-bashing et al) genuinely sprayed with a hybridized language every month, I sighed once more at suffocation of yet another innovative vogue in film-making. It would take a film with an uppercase stature to resurrect that belief... and 3 Deewarein, quite appreciatively, is just that! What makes it a winner is illustrated in the following critique:
Prisons: those aphotic cubicles purposely slewed off from light and providing just enough edifice for physical carnage and emotional suction, do they hold further extensions to the sinful gaolbirds? Well, they do have an extra wing at the Mursheedabad Prison where, even though their lifestyle isn’t anyday more relaxing than a confined menial, yet its brimmed up with dignity and love seldom seen in such domains. And the positivism of reformation at such a region is at ample display with the inmates, who just like the place they inhabit, are earthy, hard-working and sociable. Our prime focus, however is on the three manslayers, each convicted with a murder, and deservedly given death sentence.
Nagya (Nagesh Kukunoor), an earthy Hyderabadi, is found guilty of promoting his wife to the Celestial City by giving her a deathly nudge in rush-hour traffic. Clearly fed up with his bitter-half, there isn’t much room for concession thanks to his authoritarian father-in-law who makes him confess under third degree torture that its a ’’murder by impulse’’. But, is Nagya really a convict? Are his constant vociferations connoting his own innocence of any value or are they just the cries of a fearful prisoner?
Jaggu (Jackie Shroff), a suave lawyer, is another slayer who’s found guilty of stabbing his spouse brutally (the last word added for the stabbings weren’t any less than a dozen!). Perhaps the simplest of the cases, where the convicted is so conscience-smitten that even the remotest chances of appeal is defenestrated. Ready to embrace death, does Jaggu join his soulmate?
Ishaan (Naseeruddin Shah), a small-time crook from Lucknow, is the beguiler of the three. Convicted for shooting an impregnated dame during a bank robbery, his remains the most amusing of the three cases, for he seemed to have fired accidently (thanks to the trip from a protruding human leg-piece!) A staunch believer in freedom, he’s optimistic about escaping unobserved this time around as well! Does he succeed in his mission?
Chandrika (Juhi Chawla), is a nickel-and-dime movie maker who’s all set to make a documentary on these prisoners. Herself a victim of discommoded wedlock and a sadistic husband, is she successful in making her film? Or is there a darker secret beneath her mission?
Directed, scripted and screen-written by Nagesh Kukunoor, 3 Deewarein’s forte is its subtlety and viscidity. And both in such wonderful equilibrium, that it all just swims towards inevitable perfection. The high amplitude of subtlety invariably shows in the prison shots where, through a smooth narrative, the director fleets over everyday prison life making even the most mundane of achievements appear plausible. All this collectively imparting the prison a far sophisticated image that extends way beyond those dark abattoirs of physical carnage and emotional suction.
Be it the references to buggery (a consequence of isolation from the fairer sex) or the insecurities of prisoners unwilling to leave the premises for fear of lack of sustenance outside, or even displaying the general desolation and bleakness, everything is played with that subtle seriousness, that let alone jarring, the film is way removed from even being preachy. And then there are those subtle chords masterfully developed between the protagonists, which are so very devoid of extra drama and extra locomotion we are used to. Even when the temperature rises, the emotions are well under control, the gesticulations thoroughly played down.
If subtletly formed the body of the flick, its the backbone of murders and the mystery surrounding them that keeps you glued. From the prologuing monochromous slides, the mystery of the three otherwise disjointed murders getting unwrapped slowly as verisimilitude tardily surfaces is what makes 3 Deewarein an absolute winner. The bare-it-all climax when the labyrinth of the murder-trinity lies unsolved is the key to that rewarding sigh that the viewer exhales, and it imparts such wonderful completeness to the whole enterprise, that its a pleasant surprise, for such wholesomeness is almost alien to this genre where films turn grotesque in their culmination phase.
Kukunoor possesses nonpareil visual style (ably helped by Ajayan Vincent) which brings in awesome polish to an otherwise quotidian environs. Every shot comes fluorished with ample light, transmuting the whole screen into lushness.
Almost unforgettable are those deft touches of using monochrome for flashbacks and experimental continuous shots which deceive the viewer quite amusingly (one is actually shocked when the same scenes are repeated during the climax!). All this only juxtaposed by brilliant editing by Sanjib Datta whose masterful scissors turn even a mild interrogation scene into an edge-of-the-seat experience. The sporadic narrative is palpable thanks to the crisply cut flashbacks contrasted wonderfully into the main story.
Since the film defies every prescript and protocol that rules Bollywood films, one is spared of those obligatory ditties, though the simplistic background music (mainly flutes and pianos) by Salim-Suleiman goes with the slow, subtle feel of the flick.
A film so subtle in its display, one tends to ignore the shining performances on display. Completely subtracted from over-the-top histrionics and dialogues, all the actors look well at ease in underplaying their characters. So while Jackie looks every part of the suave, poetic and honest prisoner, Nagesh looks equally convincing as the rustic, monosyllable-uttering Hyderabadi. Just watching these two men in their confessional scenes with Juhi brings a lump in the throat. Undeniably, Naseer has the lengthiest and the most pivotal part to play here, and that a flawless performer he is, he steals the show with frightening ease.
Juhi as the primary female cast bowls you over with her winsome charm and an unblemished, controlled performance. Her best scenes are the confrontation scenes with her husband and Naseer towards the climax --A wonderful follow up to Jhankaar Beats for Bollywood’s most underrated queen-bee.
.::Epilogue::.
3 Deewarein is an achievement. An achievement of positivity and justice, of honesty and innocence. Just when you think you have written your own life and sit atop it, destiny intervenes, erases what you have drawn and re-routes the path of life making you follow it till death espouses you, confirming the pre-scription of our goals. The best thing about it is that the film delivers the message with two hours of entertainment.
Is it really the best film of the year? Experience it for yourself and try to disagree! For now, two words of appraisal would do!
Shanti:::Karan.