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Some films come up to you, and slowly draw you in, until you are firmly within their spell. This is what happened to me when I watched ‘Jugnuma: The Fable’ : the quality of life being lived in the slow lane — the film is set in 1989, in the upper reaches of the Uttarakhand hills — where nothing much seems to happen, one day passing uneventfully into another, is ruptured by the growing feeling of something more, something elemental, something beyond our grasp.
What writer and director Raam Reddy, with the help of cinematographer Sunil Borkar, and a cast which is one with the plan, has managed to pull off is quite remarkable. The two-hour film weaves in the prosaic, the quotidian, with quiet strokes of magical realism, leaving us wondering about our world, and the tantalising possibility of other worlds.
Dev (Manoj Bajpayee), owner of one of the biggest apple orchards in the area, is grappling with the mysterious burning of a tree on one of his patches, leaving his long-time estate manager Mohan (Deepak Dobriyal) equally puzzled. Could it be just a one-off, or is it a pattern? Are the villagers who have worked in the orchards for generations, upset about pesticides being used on the trees? Is the skeletal tree a message, to keep the ecology of the place as is? Will Dev, whose outhouse stores a pair of massive wings which he has engineered himself, escape his troubles, as a feathered streak?
Other puzzles crop up. A group of nomads have camped just above the homestead where Dev lives with his family, the jam-making, melodious-voiced wife Nandini (Priyanka Bose), the tear-about young son Juju (Awan Pookot) and his two inseparable Alsatians, and the visiting-on-a-hostel-break teenage daughter Vanya (Hiral Sidhu). The wanderers do not use words, but seem to communicate through humming, and one amongst them, a handsome horseman, catches Vanya’s fancy: who are these people, and are they responsible for the fires, which are spreading through the orchard?
Reddy’s observational approach, which we saw in his debut feature ‘Tithi’, is at play here too, but that was a burlesque; here, he ambitiously takes in more, and gives us more. In a few places the specific and the abstract do clash, and sit uneasily on screen: a village woman (Tillotama Shome) is used as a conduit for recounting a folk tale about other-worldly creatures who forget their origins and become earthlings, and while there is power to the tale, the telling of it draws attention to itself.
The film also comments on casteism, classism and capitalism in the way Dev comes across to his workers: there is an acknowledgement of their connection built through generations – the land, and its abundant gifts, has been passed on to Dev through his father and grandfather — but there’s also a brusqueness bordering on arrogance. The power struggle in the hills, with a greedy patwari and a group of armed guards showing up to ‘help’ Dev while everything is crumbling, is evident: who do the hills really belong to? The question is deeply political and always relevant, and is something to think about.
It’s when the film stays gentle, it is most piercing. Priyanka Bose is lovely as a woman who has found her rhythm in taking care of home and hearth and the occasional beautifully-rendered song. The young actors are very good, too. This is easily one of my top favourite Manoj Bajpayee performances (after ‘Shool’ and ‘Gangs Of Wasseypur’), and it is a pleasure to see him slide into his character’s skin and make it his own: Deepak Dobriyal’s pitch-perfect act as the raconteur who is both let down and raised high, is a cherry on top.
‘Jugnuma’ (riffing off the jugnus/fireflies — jugnu-numa — on screen?) lives up to its name: how much you lean into its fablesque qualities will depend entirely on what you think about the power of imagination. I do believe us earthly creatures can soar, reaching places beyond our horizons.
Jugnuma The Fable movie cast: Manoj Bajpayee, Deepak Dobriyal, Priyanka Bose, Tillotama Shome, Hiral Sidhu, Awan Pookot, Ravi Bisht
Jugnuma The Fable movie director: Raam Reddy
Jugnuma The Fable movie rating: 3.5 stars
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