Talvar

Talvar: 

A movie I didn't want to watch and thought would be hard to sit through, given the poignancy of the traumatic story; a narrative which we had seen unfold in our living rooms not so long ago; the hangmen/women masquerading as news readers, conducting a trial of their own and forcing the society to stand divided on the question of the culpability of the parents of the killed teenager! A family one could easily identify with! They were our kind of people, Doctors, for heaven's sake , not some unidentifiable Richie rich, Page 3 variety or "those types", the stereotypical slum dwellers! How would it be to once again, live through those terrible months after the killing of the beautiful young teenager?  Why should one subject oneself to a chilling experience of déjà vu? All these questions troubled me, but see the movie I did! Finally! 

 How does one make a movie about a murder, the micro details of which are present in public memory so vividly? How to retain viewer interest in a murder mystery which is not your regular whodunnit and has already been adjudicated upon and sentence pronounced by the trial court? That must have been a challenge but it certainly did not turn out to be a handicap!  

This is a tale told as it is! It is not a fictionalised version of a true story! Three different perspectives are presented with equal finesse. It is realistic story telling at its best and both the script writer and the Director succeed in presenting a perfectly balanced story, with almost equal emphasis on different versions of the truth! One can argue that Truth is Absolute and there can be no versions of it, but it is about story telling and letting each side emerge clearly! So you have the parents being declared guilty by the media, then by the UP police, and simultaneously by the society! " Boyfriends to hum sabke hote hain, but an old man and that too a servant? Disgusting!" , declared one sassy  teenager before a mike  thrust in her face by a vigilante reporter,  pronouncing the young victim guilty! And earning her own moment of fame! 

The portrayal of UP police is funny in a macabre sense! Almost comical, if it weren't tragic in its implications and consequences.The CDI tries to bring an element of scientific investigation but personalities and loyalties clash and there is further botching up of the case! The investigation  goes flip flop from Talwars Not Guilty to Not Enough Evidence to Prosecute them! Irrfan,  as this dashing, bold and independent  CDI officer makes the most basic observation: kisi bhi case me 3 stages hoti  hain 1) Khoj 2) saboot aur phir 3) saza! Par is case me sab ulta  hua, Pehle saza huyi, phir saboot......! How often have we lamented about this flawed sequencing? 

The movie also presents the servants' perspective very judiciously. It also throws sufficient light on the many incomplete lines of investigation and loose threads or over reliance on flimsy stuff in the case. As far as the craft of film making is concerned, credit must be given to the makers for carving out the core elements of the saga, cleverly leaving out the trash generated during the actual unfolding of the mystery! The sensitivities and sensibilities of intruding into the private lives of people, whose lives have anyways been torn asunder, are maintained painstakingly. So much so that watching the movie turned out to be  less traumatic than the tragedy itself and my fears lay allayed. I found myself appreciating Irrfan and the entire cast of the movie, in particular Konkana as Dr Nutan Talwar and the guys who played police officers of different ranks and cadres! Superb portrayal! 

At the end of the movie, one could conclude that the balance of argument lay in favour of the Talwars' innocence but as an intelligent movie goer you can decide which side you are on! It's all open to taking sides--unabashedly! Isn't that the basic flaw in this case and several others? We are all impressionable human beings and watching biased, prejudiced, one sided, gossip based constructs on TV might, at the subconscious level, influence our judgment!! The movie is yet another narrative constructed to demystify reality and help us draw our own conclusions! Successfully! 

Definitely worth a watch......