Film Review: Dhai Aakhar’s timidly open end pinpricks superb storytelling

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The malaise is increasing and that is alarming. The film’s premise is bold, progressive, rebelliously so. Till the end, we see a strong positive current against the negative patriarchy that India still faces in all regions and sections of society, in every religion (remember Hamare Baarah?) and even among the urban educated.

The superb storytelling in Dhai Aakhar (which means two-and-a-half letters, as seen in the words ‘prem‘ or ‘pyar‘, both meaning love), based on the novel, Teerthatan Ke Baad by Amrik Singh Deep, conveys simultaneously how two educated women, Harshita (Mrunal Kulkarni) and her younger daughter-in-law, Bela (Prasanna Bisht) have to forgo their dreams to become something in life and also marry out of parental pressures.

Harshita’s husband (Rohit Kokate) and Bela’s life partner, Vineet (Neer Raao) are products of the same entrenched misogynistic and regressive patriarchy. Harshita remembers Vineet as an overly timid child who could not sleep alone till very late, but he now behaves almost like a goon with Bela and her. Harshita’s husband is a complete tyrant, so movies and books and stepping out of the house alone are strict no-nos, accompanied by physical (and mental) ill-treatment.

When he dies in an accident, the two sons (the elder one too has similar traits and so does his wife!) ostracize Harshita in an upper room where she has to sleep on the floor, come chilly winters or very hot summers, and lead a widow’s “religious” life.

Harshita soon leaves for a pilgrimage, but an accidental discovery of some letters in her room make the sons realize that she has actually left to spend a week with a man who has—only through letters and his books, which she surreptitiously reads—become close to her!

All hell breaks loose, and while the family, except for Bela, who has been encouraging her mother-in-law all along, go into hyper mode about how she has disgraced them in society and how she must be punished, even physically.

Meanwhile, Harshita, for the first time in decades, gets respect, genuine affection and equality from Sridhar (Harish Khanna) and lives a life of deep happiness and contentment. But then, in those pre-mobile days, she finally receives a letter from Bela that her secret has been revealed and retribution awaits her. Harish reassures her that he will soon come to her home and ask for her hand in marriage—he has never found a partner who is in sync with his progressive yet unconventional thought processes.

Back home, Harshita asserts herself with her sons, even in financial matters when they plan to rid her of the means to do what she wants, and they intercept Harish’s letter that he is coming to meet them. They are prepared even to kill him and be sentenced for the crime. What happens next is the climax of the film and yet an anticlimax. Bela’s life does not become better, and what happens with Harshita and Shridhar is interrupted with the slide “Directed by Praveen Arora”!

Open ends (a general cinematic nuisance unless they are cliffhangers for a sequel) have emerged as the bane of Hindi cinema in the last two decades. In such social issue missions, why must writers and filmmakers sit on the fence?? Even if the original novel (which I have not read) had this kind of an end, why not modify it for something that is cinematically as well as socially gratifying? Especially when, in a face-less (as is, minus a well-known cast) film, they expect viewers to shell out “multiplex moneys” to come and watch a theatrical release.

Festival hosannas (this film has received a few) barely matter when a film is made for the audience, unless the makers merely want to show how regression still exists in non-rural Indian culture and get appreciation at nondescript festivals globally!

Besides, what about the basic axiomatic fact that a social message, to reach the maximum people, needs to be packaged in an audience-friendly manner, the more “revolutionary” and progressive it is? With this one glaring faux pas, the film slides a star and a half in rating!!

The actors do their jobs sincerely and adequately, and one feels for Harshita in the way Mrinal Kulkarni has expressed her in her hopes, traumas and anguish. Harish Khanna fits the role as Sridhar and Prasanna Bisht stands out as Bela. The rest of the protagonists merely have to be good at their projected negativity.

Irshad Kamil’s lyrics are wasted and do not catch attention in the tepid songs. The script is fabulous until the last sequence and so is the direction. But….!

Rating: **1/2

Kabir Communications’ & Aakriti Productions Pvt. Ltd.’s Dhai Aakhar  Produced by: J.P. Agrawal, Kamlesh Agrawal, Praveen Arora & S.K. Jain Jamai  Directed by: Praveen Arora  Written by: Amrik Singh Deep & Asghar Wajahat  Music: Anupam Roy  Starring: Mrinal Kulkarni, Harish Khanna, Rohit Kokate, Prasanna Bisht, Shruti Sharma, Neer Raao, Chandan Anand, Smriti Mishra & Aadya Agrawal