BHAIRAVI
Inspired by the life story of one of India's greatest music legends Pandit Ravi Shankar and his first wife Annapurna Devi.
Bhairavi the Movie is the sensitively portrayed story of a young Sitar player Bhairavi, and the many vagaries of her life. In fact, the many moods of the various events in her life and her passage through them are hauntingly reminiscent of the various passages in the formal rendition of a classical Hindustani music piece.
Faintly inspired by the life story of one of India's greatest music legends, Pandit Ravi Shankar and his first wife Annapurna Devi from some reliable sources we have come to know. Bhairavi is produced by Atul Pandey & Uday Sinh Wala.
The characterizations and performances bring vividly alive the drama, passion, pain, longing and despair of the players in this story that is actually a musical painting of one woman’s life.
Bhairavi is a natural evolution in form, story, technique and finesse of a new genre of films from India, taking it in fact to a different plane altogether.
Salient points to note are that Music is an integral character in the story, Hindustani Classical Sitar Rendition being at the base of the narrative. This in itself is not very special, but for the fact that the many moods of the protagonist are so very aptly mirrored by the Music. Music rules.
Also key is the fact that other forms like Quawwalis, alaaps and a song have also been used as musical devices, and not just classical strains of the sitar…which is something like the backbone of the musical structure of the film.
Another device is the leverage of a sensitive performance by Priya Gill who has lived her character, as the burden of the movie, a sort of leitmotif that defines the mood and story movement.
Treatment is another creative leap forward......a stream of consciousness technique, very reminiscent of Virginia Wolfe narratives takes the viewer imperceptibly forward and back in time, with not a single jolt of flow or rhythm. The creative and technical mastery of the talent involved is however so imperceptibly employed that it is not at all apparent here. Only a trained eye would be able to capture the craft used. Competent art direction and understated acting treatments add immense value to the story-telling.
Five medical students from a capitation fee college in India, represent the youth hooked onto xbox's and formula 1 racing. That is the only India they have inherited and that is the only India they know. Till one day, a game they play goes too far. As an outcome they land up in one of the most deprived villages in Maharashtra. Their rural posting turns into a soul searching journey where they are forced to confront their own apathy, their own fears and their strange complicity in the circumstances of the village. Before they can run from there, they get sucked into the whirlpool of village politics and feudal counter currents. Each of the five undergo different kinds of catharsis and in the end have to make a choice. Do they leave the mess just as they had found it and get away from there....or do they choose to get involved? 