An estranged mother-and-daughter duo circle back to each other under trying circumstances, forging an unexpected, tender connection: Goldfish, directed by Pushan Kripalani, can be defined by this single line, but it encompasses much more. The film is about remembrance, forgetting and the power of love, all the things that make human lives so precious. The film opens with Anamika (Kalki Koechlin) answering a distress call from her mother Sadhana's (Deepti Naval) neighbour. Things have reached a point where Sadhana's condition is becoming increasingly dangerous for her to live on her own, even though she has kindly neighbours looking out for her on her London street. These are people Ana, Miku to her mum, has known well. A former NHS nurse (Bharti Patel), a young woman who’s been friends with Ana since they were children, now a mother herself (Shanaya Rafat) a couple of amiable retirees (Gordon Warnecke, Ravin J Ganatra); the new addition is a gent (Rajit Kapur) who has a soft spot for Sadhana as Ana discovers. The pandemic is on, so most of the surroundings are deserted, with people wearing masks when they step out, and that’s why ‘Goldfish’ is able to carry off its rather sparse look, revolving around this handful. The device of using voice-overs through which Ana remembers her father (whom we never see) is initially discordant, but it is made up for by Koechlin’s arresting, unvarnished presence through the film. The dilemma that Ana faces is something so many of us with ageing, often difficult parents, can relate to: do you send them off to a home, there to try and become one amongst strangers also in different stages of dementia, and chivvied about like children, or do you give up on your life which may be elsewhere, and give them the care and company they desperately need in their own home? Naval has had experience in being the screen mother of problem children (‘Memories of March’ is a memorable role), and here she is spot on as a radio artist whose life is filled with music, even now, when her memory is deserting her. Koechlin, as the daughter struggling with past resentments and present preoccupations (she has a partner whom she keeps at bay while she is dealing with her mother’s situation; she also has a great job waiting for her in another country), is excellent. The unravelling of the rocky, tempestuous relationship between the duo gives the film its heft as we discover Sadhana was never a cuddly, cosy mother to Miku: maybe she never really wanted to be a mother. How do you deal with scars of your own while being confronted by a woman you may never have had any maternal instincts? Can you abandon her, just the way you have felt abandoned? Can that ever be a solution? Goldfish, essentially a thought-provoking two-hander between its lead actresses, leaves us with these thorny questions, and the welcome possibility of redemption. Goldfish movie cast: Deepti Naval, Kalki Koechlin, Rajit Kapur, Bharti Patel, Shanaya Rafat, Gordon Warnecke, Ravin J Ganatra Goldfish movie director: Pushan Kripalani Goldfish movie rating: 3 stars
