2015, French, Netflix, 7.2/10 IMDB, Jacques Audiard
A honest hard-hitting story on political asylum seekers, that leaves you dumbstruck with its authentic representation of the predicaments of the unfortunates, whose pain we pretended to be ‘aware of’ all these days. The winner of the Palme d’Or at the 2015 Cannes, showcases incredible talents on screen and behind lenses.
Many rooted filmmakers and witters had ventured on a theme that is similar to Dheepan- a portrayal of the lives of the asylum-seeking refugees. But Dheepan, is Cinéma vérité, a technique that is predominantly used in Documentary films- to use the camera to discover the buried truth of the crude reality.
Yes, the premise does sound tedious- the consequences of the 26 years long Srilankan Civil war, the clash between the Government forces and the armed militant group that proposed a separate state in northern Sri Lanka called Tamil Ellam. But the film zooms-in on the aftermath of the war, the scars that were left behind, the irrevocable loss of life and livelihood. The strength of the film uniquely lies in its concurrent journey that walks with ‘them’- The Refugees.
The dilemmas they face and the humiliations they bear for no mistake of theirs, constitute the crux alright, but its narrative in connecting their pulsating pain one after the other, is what absorbs the audience. The amount of research that had gone in to the project, is evident in the seamless screenplay. A simple opening of the film to a post war refugee camp, feels eerie, as the scene keeps widening to represent the magnitude of torn families.
The awed admiration on the three lead actors including the teen girl, never ceases, as they seem so convincing. Not in one shot, you have the slightest thought they are merely emoting on the director’s instruction, as their pain seems almost tangible. When the credits roll, you understand the lead Anthonythasan who plays Dheepan, is an author and a real life LTTE member, who had undergone training and that describes all the pain in his eyes, which seemed real for ‘it is real’.
The same goes with the female lead Kalieaswari and Claudine who play Yalini and Illayaal. They never stop to surprise you, playing their multi layered characterizations, with utmost perfection. The duo talking in the kitchen and Illayaal trying to put some sense in to Yalini for the first time, addressing her to show some courtesy, for her mom had just been killed in the war. This scene emphasis that they aren’t simply numb but have no choice other than to pretend they are numb. The director scores in many such scenes, like Yalini conversing in Tamil to the sick French man whom she takes care of, the way they learn French from Illayaal who attends school, the survival drama in a housing system that deals with drug mafia, the gun shots that reminds them of the war back home and many more.
The unconventional bewitching juxtapositions, of weird close-up shots that zooms out in snail pace, leaving you guessing for a good whole minute. The music, then slowly scales up with the real life sounds of the ambience, and the surprise dawns on you, when you witness the object that had been zoomed, in its naturalness. These shots reiterates their anguish and also adds a finer dimension to their human subconscious mind, that longs to get back to their own soil. The maker succeeds in wrenching your heart with those beautiful camera work.
What actor Kamal Haasan tried in ‘Vishwaroopam’ – transforming to this fierce Wizam Ahmad Kashmiri from being the tamed Vishwanathan, here Anthonithasan who plays Dheepan, does it with more realism, sans any heroism and manages to score, if not more, at the least at par with the veteran actor.
What director Karthik Subbaraj attempted in his recent project ‘Jagame thantiram’, to painstakingly digitalize the post war migrant’s agony, in an elaborate screenplay, the makers of Dheepan achieved it in many folds with no jingoism.
The closing shot is another one of those calming tight close-ups, which zooms-in this time instead of zooming out, ‘the fingers caressing the hair’. A befitting closure indeed conveying what no words could have expressed.
It’s a must watch, to do a comparative study of the craft of the French director to that of the Indian makers, who are compelled by certain template. Sadly, the Indian work often seem to succumb, not doing justice to the plot and the miseries of the people that inspired them in the first place.
Must watch.