By Michael Colford
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Ritesh Batra
Starring: Denzil Smith | Nawazuddin Siddiqui | Sachin Khedekar | Sanya Malhotra
Country: germany, india, united_states
Year: 2019
Running time: 110
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7778680/reference
Michael says: “PHOTOGRAPH is an Indian film directed by Ritesh Batra, follow-up his 2013 smash, international breakthrough, THE LUNCHBOX. PHOTOGRAPH is a gently paced, sweet romance across class boundaries. Raif is a street photographer who takes pictures of tourists in front of cultural landmarks. He happens upon Miloni, a young woman who is studying for her accounting certification (she passed her first exam at #1) and takes her picture. While rummaging for an envelope to put the photo is, she is called away by her family, and when Raif looks up, she is gone, along with the photo, without having paid for it. But Miloni haunts his thoughts more because of something in the way they looked at each other through the camera than the theft of the photo, and when his grandmother, who lives in the village where Raif was raise, declares that she will stop taking her medication until her grandson finds a potential bride, he fabricates a story of the woman he has met and sends the photo of Miloni to her. It’s all harmless until Dadi (Rafi’s grandmother) decides to travel to Mumbai to see her grandson and meet this new girl (who Rafi named Noorie.) If it sounds like a Hollywood rom-com, don’t be fooled. Things unspool at a much slower pace, and with much more sensitivity than your typical Hollywood fare. In fact, I was kind of tired and was losing the thread during the first third of the film, but after taking a brief break about mid-way through, i came back and was immediately absorbed by this beautiful story, as the two protagonists start to yearn for each other despite the cultural divide that separates them.
“The two leads are wonderful, so understated, despite the fact that they are big Bollywood stars in India. Nawazuddin Siddiqui brings a handsome solemnity to Raif; gentle and deferential… highly aware of his lower-class background but drawn to the beautiful Miloni despite it all. Sanya Malhotra is so expressive as Miloni, questioning why she wants from life and responding to the kindness of this quiet man who seems to slowly captivate her. The cinematography is stunning, using Mumbai to its fullest, both the tourist spots and the back alleys. The light is alternatively shadowed and diffuse depending on the tone Batra seeks to strike. The more I think about it, the more I am likely to nominate PHOTOGRAPH for several categories. Free on Amazon Prime! 4.5 cats“