Movie Review Aligarh

Movie Review - Aligarh

Last night when I watched the latest Hansal Mehta Biopic on Prof. Siras – Aligarh, I was compelled to write about it. Aligarh is a movie which needs not only to be seen, and written about but also talked about a lot – esp. in the current times of political and social upheaval.

Three things stand out in Aligarh – one about the social issue of equality, liberty and justice, the essential tenets of our constitution; Two the movie itself, esp. its direction, cinematography, editing and acting; And the third being about homosexuality – in that order.

In one dialogue form the movie, the editor calls the main incident of the movie, a sex scandal to which the young journalist responds that it is not a sex scandal but about human rights. This dialogue kind of sums the message of the movie.

While the theme of the movie and the real life incident has been has been characterized as being about homosexuality, but in reality this is more about how much of freedom exists for an individual to live as per his or her choices and how much over-arching is the social fabric and morality of the society on the personal spaces of an individual.

The preamble of our constitutions speaks about guaranteeing to all its citizens:

JUSTICE, social, economic and political; LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship; EQUALITY of status and of opportunity; Article 21 of the Indian constitution also gives to its citizen a fundamental right to privacy.

Can then, the collective morality of the society override this guarantee? That is the question which the movie raises. Aligarh, in its very subtle narrative brings out this point and how an individual actually is nothing in front of the mob mentality and the mob justice that seems to largely prevail in this country, esp. in the domains of religion, sexual preferences and more recently nationalism.

Aligarh is a movie to be seen with patience, to understand its layered messages and to understand the conflict that exists in the current times between simplicity and politics; between poetry and quick conclusions; between the essence and the word; between the various shades of gray the life is and the boxed black & white view of the world that the society wants to have. The society wants to label you either as a hero or as a villain. The human seems to get lost in between.

In terms of the movie, Aligarh is simply a masterpiece. A work of beauty created by Hansal Mehta, It can easily fall in the category of text book movies to learn about subtle direction, cinematography and editing.

The direction is so subtle that if you are not fully into the movie, you could miss a lot. The facial expressions of the artists, the way they are dressed in a particular scene, the camera angles used etc are very suggestive of the underlying narrative that is being told.

It is hard to write about these nuances, the best way would be for Hansal Mehta to release a “Making of Aligarh” as a potential tutorial for many aspiring movie makers and for movie buffs.

In terms of acting, this by far is the finest role done by Manoj Bajpayee. He so beautifully depicts the sense of isolation and alienation of Dr. Siras and what he goes through in a hostile society, where even his so called friends also refuse to help. Manoj give us a window to peep into the life of a person, who braves to be different at the same time who is also human, with his own needs of acceptance, inclusion, recognition and pride.

In a way, one gets to know Dr. Siras as a person and about his entire life, way beyond the events depicted in the movie.

Finally the last piece about – Homosexuality; Hansal Mehta and his team have done a brilliant job of not making a caricature of it and not boxing the protagonist in a small box.

The question that the movie raises is that while for a “normal” human being his or her sexuality is just one piece of his or her being, how come when it comes to homosexuals, their sexuality seems to be the only lens through which the society sees them. The movie, while exploring the sexuality of Dr. Siras does a complete justice to present the complete human that he was or anyone else could be. And how narrow the society gets, when it judges people only by one aspect of their life; not just judges, but admonishes them.

Kudos to Hansal and his team for such great cinematic achievement and a piece of art that they have created!

- Ameet Mattoo 4th March 2016