Investment of the heart. Review on My Brother Nikhil

My Brother Nikhil ? a poignant tale of human relationships and the breakdown of the human support system. Not a new subject, not the first film to have tread the path but an important film nonetheless for the significance of its message, passage of time notwithstanding. The film?s take out will always be relevant, especially for a country that has failed to rise above social taboos, the educated lot included.

== With shades and images of Philadelphia wafting in and out of my mind, the film recitation projected a treatment that was strong and earthy. At times however the pace became a trifle too laboured, the night sequences on the beach inviting a quick shuteye and the film not delving on the reasons on how the protagonist got the disease which I felt was equally important given the context.

== Keeping these aside, what was gut wrenching was the social and personal support systems just crumbling in the protagonist?s world. Only those who have actually been through it can understand the curse that is ostracism. I can?t. You can?t. Neither can those ignorant supposedly educated fools who were sitting behind me, chatting away making crass comments throughout the film.

== How does it feel to be ostracized? The world, which looked up to you, the world you looked up to, one day decides to close itself forever. And suddenly life, feels like it?s hurtling down a blackhole at a speed beyond human control. You have nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, not one moment when you can find the solace of freedom. How do you think it would be?

== To top this, one has to face the cold trepidation of impending death. Each moment becomes a lifetime. Do you then live life as seconds, minutes and hours? You wait. That?s all you can do. What thoughts and emotions, known and unknown run through your mind? Courage, defeat, regret, remorse, guilt. Perhaps the film could have brought alive this aspect of Nikhil?s life as well, much stronger than what it did. The subtexts would have been even more powerful.

== The film was touching with a lot of heart invested in it. Credit should go to the actors. Each one of them held their ground with some refined performances. One shouldn?t forget the producers of the film for having believed in the creative. Indian cinema has started witnessing the rise of the independent filmmaker who is determined to showcase his ware and talent. Let his tribe grow. The industry needs him if it has to take on the onerous tasks of helping itself mature as also the country?s movie going populace.

PS: Why is it, that in human relationships portrayed, the father son relationship always turns out to be the most moving and the most painful one? There must be some truth in it.