Invisible in plain sight

Anamika Haksarrsquos Ghode Ko Jalebi Khilane Le Ja Riya Hoon Taking the Horse to Eat Jalebis Hindi Urdu is a unique inventive voice in Indian cinema Itrsquos been a long time since anyone in Indian cinema paid attention to the lives of real people living off the streets But Haksar weaves a fascinating tapestry through four men who eke a living on the streets of Shahjahanabad Old Delhi evoking their dreams hopes and fears realised through a survey and tributing their resilience in an exciting experimental film that is partdocumentary and peppered with magic realism surrealism and animation It released in theatres on June 10 in five citiesmdashMumbai Delhi Pune Lucknow and Jaipur and is available on bookmyshowIn a nation producing the most films in the world 2446 features in 2019 that has only six per cent women directors every new woman director is a miracle of existence especially for a woman who directed her first feature at 59 in 2018 The film was at the Sundance Film Festival International Film Festival of Kerala and Mumbai Film Festival Haksar follows four street characters who live by their witsmdashPatru Ravindra Sahu a pickpocket Chhadammi Raghubir Yadav a snack vendor Aakash Jain Lokesh Jain a local tourist guide and Lal Bihari K Gopalan a laboureractivist along with hundreds of nonactors Patru lsquostealsrsquo tourists who are clients of tourist guide Aakash Jain and shows them lsquoapni Dillirsquo how people live work and die in its streets Later a firangi tourist who asks for lsquofolk storiesrsquomdashand has a tea vendor relate how her son died after falling into a wellmdashcannot handle what she asked for Chhadammi finds his dreams of prosperity invaded by the leftwing dreams of Lal Bihari a labouractivist who in an animation sequence towers over buildings waving a red flag to the tune of the Internationale the former Soviet national anthem What a magnificent ideamdashthe invasion of dreams Aakash Jain who tells his tourist clients of Indiarsquos secular GangaJamuni tehzeeb in flowery Urdu is taunted by rightwing Hindus for speaking in ldquotheir language and walking in miniPakistanrdquo The film is more keenly relevant than ever for celebrating Indiarsquos secularism and also paying attention to the poor who are now all but abandoned by the stateHaksar is of course a veteran theatre director she trained with Badal Sircar the National School of Drama and at the Lunacharsky State Institute for Theatre Arts later Russian Academy of Theatre Arts in Moscow and has directed a number of plays She is also from a Kashmiri Pandit family and daughter of the late PN Haksar former Principal Secretary to Indira Gandhi This may not have been relevant except that her film is befitting if unintended riposte it was made in 2018 to the desperately rightwing Kashmir Files that is backed by the state through a film that celebrates Indiarsquos secular culture and Islamic heritage and has a genuine concern for the poormdashboth of which seem lowest in state prioritiesHaksar brings a refreshing inventiveness as a newcomer to cinema There are unforgettable images like the corpses shrouded in white suspended in midair in a home the tourist guide reading poetry lying prone on a donkey led through narrow gullies Haksarrsquos reading of poverty is a far cry from Bollywoodrsquos melodramatic poverty say in Coolie 1983 as well as the obsequiousness and rage of the poor in Ramin Bahranirsquos White Tiger Her spirit is closer to the empathy of Chaitanya Tamhanersquos Court and Shaunak Senrsquos documentaries All That Breathes and Cities of Sleep but she remains an original voiceWe are moved by the dignity of the exploited yet Haksar does not spend long enough with any one character for us to remain emotionally invested in them Her screenplay a stinging satire on the government corporates and intellectuals unfortunately also meanders She encourages us to consider a society beyond religious boundaries unbridled capitalism or communism Ravindra Sahu is lively Raghubir Yadav and K Gopalan are effective Cinematographer Saumyananda Sahi is superb as is Gautam Nairrsquos sound design Kudos to Anamika Haksar also woman producer with Gutterati Productions and distributor Platoon One FilmsMeenakshi Shedde is India and South Asia Delegate to the Berlin International Film Festival National Awardwinning critic curator to festivals worldwide and journalistReach her at meenakshisheddemiddaycom