A while back I fell in love with the movie The Lunchbox by Ritesh Batra. Naturally then, it follows that I’d check out his latest romance movie Photograph.
Photograph tells the story of Rafi (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) who works as a street photographer in Mumbai. Most days he touts for business amongst tourists at the Gateway of India. A tough existence, what money he does earn gets handed over to help pay off an old family debt.
The quiet, unassuming Rafi has no time for socialising much to the annoyance of his grandmother who’s desperate for him to marry.
At the other end of the social scale is accounting student Miloni (Sanya Malhotra) who hankers to be an actress.
One day, while out with family, Miloni steps away from the group and into Rafi’s path. A photo is taken, but while Rafi looks down to print the image Miloni leaves.
Tired of his grandmothers constant nagging Rafi passes Miloni’s photo as that of his fiancée. All is going well until his grandmother visits to meet the bride-to- be.
Like The Lunchbox, the Photograph movie is a slow moving journey into modern day Indian life. A gentle romance. As the story played out I pondered:
- The movie explores lives lived on different levels and what happens if you live amongst a higher class but hanker for a simpler life;
- It is this unusual twist of wanting to move down a class that takes the movie beyond the usual romance;
- Inspired in part by Bollywood the colours pop. Don’t miss the most colourful taxi interior, much more interesting than our bland cars.
For more information go to Perth Festival
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