Pokhar Ke Dunu Paar movie review: Poetic and profound, the best Hindi film of the year

Job opportunities aren’t the only thing that people like Sumit and Priyanka were robbed of by the pandemic; their dignity was snatched away as well. And so, after having lived a full life in New Delhi and with nowhere else to go, they return to Darbhanga. Not welcome at home, they hole up on the top floor of a dilapidated dormitory that once used to be a grand mansion, a symbol of their disintegrating relationship. The large doors and lavish balcony create an illusion of freedom. But Priyanka isn’t free. nor does she live in a penthouse, much as her temporary accommodation may seem like one. She’s trapped in an open-air prison, isolated from everybody else, both in life and in the painterly frames composed by cinematographer Pradeep Vignavelu. Meanwhile, Sumit, a wastrel, wastes time on the ‘outside’, loitering around town, shooting the breeze with his friends, and returning ‘home’ every evening with nothing but bad news.

He’s is the embodiment of the entitled Indian male, living in blissful oblivion, or at least denial. He’s is so confident of his own capabilities as a lover and a provider that he ignores Priyanka’s repeated cries for help. Played with simmering strength by Khan Jha, she’s visibly tentative around him, almost as if she’s watched this movie before. She coddles him when he throws a tantrum, raises concerns but never her voice. When Sumit promises he’ll definitely buy that stove she’s been asking for, she doesn’t believe him, nor does she trust him when he vows to take his job-hunt more seriously. But what choice does she have, as a woman who has made probably the biggest decision of her life by choosing to run away with a man she thought she loved?

Unfolding across just a couple of days, Pokhar Ke Dunu Paar exists at the intersection of producer Achal Mishra’s own films and the moody epics of the Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan. The story plays out in long, unhurried, and mostly static shots, and in allowing the conversations to unspool naturally, Saurabh makes room for unexpected diversions. Sumit and Priyanka know the ins and outs of each other’s personalities; they know when they’re walking on eggshells, and when they’re tip-toeing over a minefield. Often, the ‘point’ of the scene becomes clear 10, sometimes 15 minutes after it has begun.

A memorable scene is staged on the large balcony of their home, with Sumit and three of his equally useless buddies having an aimless conversation over some ‘chakna’ and alcohol that none of them can really afford. This is the film’s longest, most revelatory stretch of storytelling, and there’s a reason why Saurabh places it after the half-way mark. By then, the movie assumes, you’d have already forged alliances.

And as difficult as it already was to have any real sympathy for Sumit, this scene pushes him further into the realm of irredeemability. He appears to have a similar affect on most people; as played by the magnetic Jha, Sumit can turn on the charm when he needs to, but hidden beneath all that bravado is an insecure soul, afraid of being alone. We learn that he was probably the kind of loudmouth who peaked as a teenager, and continues to command a level of control over a handful of stragglers because they didn’t have anybody else to look up to. His male ego is so fragile that he refuses to confront the truth, that he no longer has as many friends as he often brags he does. Sumit is like those 35-year-old students that can be found loitering under trees at every Delhi University college, dispensing advice to unsuspecting freshers on everything from where to get photocopies and which phone numbers to call in the event of a ‘bhasad’, waiting to be cast as the protagonist of a Sandeep Reddy Vanga film.

But why does Priyanka continue to be with him? Like so many relationships, romantic or otherwise, that reached a breaking point during the pandemic, there’s a sense that the lockdown snapped an invisible thread between Sumit and Priyanka as well. We meet them after they’ve probably fallen out of love, after the thrill of rebellion has worn off, and this realisation colours the film in an entirely new light. It takes a visit from Priyanka’s namesake friend, who followed the more conventional path and still ended up unhappy, for her to be jolted back to reality. Pokhar Ke Dunu Paar isn’t so much about holding onto the past as it is about the never-ending pressure to start afresh.

Pokhar Ke Dunu Paar
Director – Parth Saurabh
Cast – Abhinav Jha, Tanaya Jha Khan
Rating – 4.5/5