When silence speaks

Gautaman Bhaskaran 

Human disability has always found an important space in movies. Right from insanity to physical handicap, we have seen them all on the screen. Who can forget Hollywood’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest where Jack Nicholson as RP McMurphy pretends to be insane to escape hard labour in prison — but the psychiatric ward in the hospital ultimately crushes him. Bangalore Days from Kerala has Parvathy Thiruvothu as a wheelchair-bound radio jockey, who mesmerises us with her charm and wit, laced with pathos.

Indian cinema has also told us stories about deaf and mute men and women. A remarkable example of this was Gulzar’s Koshish with Sanjeev Kumar and Jaya Bhaduri (now Bachchan) essaying a couple whose inability to hear or speak pushes them into an unimaginable tragedy. Their lovely life is turned upside down when their little child crawls out of their hut and into the swirling flood waters outside.

And now, Raj R Gupta’s Baba in Marathi, which was part of the recent Film Bazaar (organised by the National Film Development Corporation of India and running alongside the International Film Festival of India) in Panaji, also talks about a deaf-mute couple, Madhav (Deepak Dobriyal) and Aanandi (Nandita Patkar). Gupta — who assisted Aanand L Rai in Tanu Weds Manu — cast Deepak Dobriyal (who plays Madhavan’s friend in the film) in Baba.

Gupta zeroes in on a poor couple whose daily struggle to eke out a living gets a spring of sunshine when an acquaintance gives them a three-day-old baby that has been abandoned by the rich family of an unwed mother. Years later, and after she gets married to the man of her parents’ choice, the biological mother begins her search for the child which was taken away from her.

When she finds the child, a winsome eight-year-old boy, she wants to get him back from Madhav and Aanandi, who had nurtured him. The boy does not speak, probably because his parents do not. Also, the boy has had a sheltered existence — because of the insecurity his parents had about losing him. 

In a legal battle which his biological mother initiates to get her son back, there are hilarious moments, besides sorrowful interludes. In court, while Madhav and his wife cannot communicate with the public prosecutor, he is also unable to express himself clearly to the magistrate because of a dental problem! What is more, the couple’s friend is an awful stammerer, and all this gets the magistrate flustered, but leads to laughs.

Gupta lightens an otherwise sombre situation in a way that the enormity of the handicap and its repercussions melt away. Not many helmers could have done this.

The highlight of Baba, produced by Sanjay Dutt and Blue Mustang Creations, is undoubtedly eight-year-old Shankar, played with disarming brilliance by Aaryan Menghji, who literally carries the plot forward to its finale. Of course, both Dobriyal and Patkar sparkle as well in what could have been very, very difficult performances.

But, the climax may not be very original, for it tends to look similar to the one in Bajrangi Bhaijaan. At a little over two hours, Baba may appear stretched at places, but Gupta’s ability to infuse his narrative with authenticity shorn of starry frills lifts Baba to a league of work not often seen in Indian cinema.