Beyond the clouds - Movie Review

  Ishaan is the silver lining to the dark clouds.

  The love of foreign filmmakers with the dark underbelly of Mumbai is really unfathomable. They find beauty in the slums,dhobi ghats, crowded streets, local trains and fish markets of this dream city. It was Danny Boyle in the 2008 Oscar winner 'Slumdog Millionaire' and now it is the Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi's 'Beyond the Clouds' introducing Ishaan Khattar and Malavika Mohanan. The music maestro A.R.Rehman has given the music.
  
   Amir (Ishaan Khattar) is a teenager working for a sex-trafficer, couriering drugs in sweets' boxes to his boss' clients. He demands a raise from him inturn his boss decides to clip his wings by tipping off the cops. Amir, while running from the cops bumps into Tara (Malavika Mohanan), his sister whom he haven't met for years. Tara was once married and harassed by her husband. Now she is alone working in a dhobi ghat. She is sexually assaulted by her co-worker where she badly hurts him and ends up in jail. The lives of the siblings take a turn for the worse in parallel.

   
   There is no novelty in the story by Majidi but what strikes is the flawed characters. The characters are deliberately coloured grey. Amir is shown buying medicines for the rapist lying in the hospital bed at once and in the other moment he decides to sell off his daughter. Tara seems too comfortable to lay in bed with her boss for a few bucks also her empathy towards the kid and his mother (Tannishta Chatterjee) in jail is noteworthy.

  
   With the talk of nepotism all around, Ishaan outshines everybody in the film. He is the silver lining to this movie. He seems too comfortable with the camera in the subtle humorous scenes and in the loud scenes too. Malavika brings goosebumps with her screams but she could have emoted better. The little kids add the much needed empathy to this grim film. The brilliant Tannishtha Chatterjee is wasted in the movie. The other supporting actors are also below par.

  
  Apart from Ishaan, the best part of the movie is the camera work by Anil Mehta. His frames are the oxygen of the movie without which the movie couldn't stand, literally. He have captured  Mumbai extremely well. In one frame, he shows a stark contrast of it, on one side the sparkling city with tall skyscrapers and the gloomy slums on the other. He have used the 'play of shadows' to a brilliant effect.

 
   The theme music of the movie by A.R.Rehman reverberates in my ears. The director to my knowledge failed to understand the milieu of Mumbai. Here the characters speak perfect Hindi and English which seem a bit off putting  considering their underprivileged background.  The length could have easily been shortened by 15-20 mins.

The movie could have been much more than what the final product is.

 
Verdict : ❤❤