Homosexuality was decriminalized for a brief period of time in India. While the LGBT members thought that the situation would change for the better, that however didn’t quite happen. The mindset towards them continued to be regressive. Hansal Mehta’s Aligarh, inspired by a true story, tries to prove this point. In the process, Hansal has delivered a deeply touching and impactful film. The performances add greatly to the appeal!
The story of the movie: On February 8, 2010, Professor Srinivas Siras(Manoj Bajpayee) is caught by two mediapersons in a compromising position with a rickshaw puller in his residence in 21, Medical Colony, Aligarh. The next day, he is promptly suspended by his institution, Aligarh University. A young journalist in Delhi, Deepu Sebastian(Rajkummar Rao) gets interested in this story, not because of its ‘sex scandal’ theme but because he feels that Prof Siras has been wronged. He reaches Aligarh but realized that getting to talk to him is quite difficult as he has lost faith in members of the media after the shameful episode. With the help of few colleagues, Prof Siras decides to move court to challenge the university’s decision of suspension.
Aligarh begins with a great scene which surprisingly is shot in one take. Nothing quite is shown but the impact is made. The film gets better as Deepu reaches Aligarh and attempts to talk to Prof Siras. The bond that they form is the most beautiful part of the film. In fact, their scenes together are simply brilliant! Very few filmmakers have been able to show such a great relationship between two male characters. The courtroom scenes have their charm while there’s a hint of investigative thriller feel in the film as well as viewers are shown, in parts, what actually happened on that fateful night. On the other hand, Prof Siras’ loneliness and his love for listening to Lata Mangeshkar songs are very touching. Deepu’s interactions with his landlady are bound to raise laughs. Sadly, the film is not without its share of blemishes. At few places, it drags needlessly. The film could have been trimmed by 10 minutes at least. Another thing is that, and it’s not the fault of the film, is that the ‘what happened that night’ scenes remind one of the recently released Talvar. Now Talvar tackled this idea far more brilliantly and viewers wish if those scenes in Aligarh would have reached the level of Talvar. But as I said, Aligarh makers are not at fault here. It’s just that Talvar has set high standards for such kind of scenes!
Aligarh rests on some powerpacked performances. Manoj Bajpayee is back with yet another powerful, hard-hitting performance that is bound to be loved by each and everyone. He says so much through his expressions and eyes! And watch out for scenes where he blushes and gets embarrassed. It is too good! Rajkummar Rao has a supporting role of sorts but leaves a huge mark. Note that his accent is very unique since he’s a Malayali living in Delhi. But it’s very convincing and the comic relief that he provides in some scenes is damn good. However, his character is much more than that. In the climax, especially, he comes out with flying colours. Ashish Vidyarthi(Siras’s lawyer) delivers a fabulous performance. One can’t take one’s eyes from him, especially in the courtroom scenes. Shalini Vatsa(prosecution lawyer) once again plays a character similar to what she did in Shahid and she is damn good. The actors playing Prof Tahir, Sreedharan, Namita, the landladies and Deepu’s female colleague do a fine job.
Karan Kulkarni’s background score is subtle. There are no songs in the film. Satya Rai Nagpaul’s cinematography is marvelous, especially in the residences of Prof Siras. Indranil Chowdhury’s production design is straight out of life. Very realistic! Ishani Banerjee and Apurva Asrani’s story is very interesting and deserved to be translated into celluloid. Screenplay is fine for most parts of the film. Dialogues are simple and yet very impactful. Hansal Mehta’s direction is amazing. Just like in Shahid and Citylights, even in Aligarh, his execution is such that it might not make an immediate impact, but slowly it grows on you. Some of the moments in the film are superb and are sure to linger in one’s mind for days, just like it happened in his previous films. At the same time, however, the duration could have been bit shorter for a greater impact. Nevertheless, this is a great film and all I can say is Hansal saab, take a bow!
Some of the best scenes:
1.The fateful night of February 8, 2010
2.Deepu meets Prof Siras for the first time
3.Deepu meets Prof Siras for the second time
4.All courtroom scenes
5.Deepu and Prof Siras go out for lunch
6.Deepu and Prof Siras go out for boating
7.All scenes of Deepu and his landladies
8.Prof Siras blasts his landlord
9.Prof Siras listening to ‘Aapki nazron ne samjha’
10.The climax
On the whole, Aligarh is a poignant, touching and a refreshing film on a very shameful incident that happened in our country. It raises a lot of questions not only about the rights of LGBT, but also about the freedom of privacy and what exactly constitutes morality. Performances are award-worthy, by both Manoj Bajpayee and Rajkummar Rao. Don’t miss this film at any cost when it releases in theatres and try not googling about the incident on which the film is based. Trust me, the impact would be even more!
My rating -* ½ out of 5!