Eeb Allay Ooo!

Maybe I'm quibbling over the definition of a word, but I thought this excellent film was a drama and a human interest story told with some humor and societal observations. I didn't think of it as satire at all. You want satire? Try Arjun Patiala, which spoofs almost every Indian cop movie ever made. Sorry to disagree with the other reviewers, mostly Indian and who must know better than I.

Really enjoyed this wonderful, absorbing, thought-provoking film! Amazing imagery and genuine, compelling performances.

In Eeb Allay Ooo! (respective vocal sounds made by langurs, humans, and monkeys), the sister of the lead character is happy that her brother (Shardul Bharadwaj) has landed a government job with help from her security guard husband. She doesn't care about how much it pays, and knows and is ignoring or cannot relate with her brother's apprehension with the nature of the contractual job which is to effectively scare off monkeys from the local streets of tony neighbourhoods of New Delhi and their official, governmental properties. As a professional monkey repeller, even having received basic but useless training from a fellow worker (played by a real monkey repeller), he struggles both at the job as well at understanding the idea of using vocal sounds to deter cunning, undisciplined, and sometimes scheming monkeys from occupying the streets and disturbing human activities. Although he comes off as a dimwit with a few tricks up his sleeve, he is unable to materialize in his job, giving us viewers a vantage look at rising unemployment in India due to lack of jobs, abundance of unskilled, unemployable individuals, and poverty.

Director Prateek Vats carves a realistic picture with his protagonist, a college dropout, who has trouble with authority as well as with the idea of an unconventional job that he didn't even know existed. But then this original drama with sporadic spurts of comedy, also notes the otherwise secure and conventional job of his brother-in-law. He is a security worker at an establishment, but when he is handed a firearm for better self defence, superstition and baser fear comes out of nowhere to clip his arms and income. Vats sheds light at the undesired situation this family quickly falls in even though there are "thousands of job vacancies ready to be filled" according to an online platform.

The mockery that the protagonist endures as well as the encounter with corrupt authority, garnished with animal rights, blind faith advocates who think monkeys are avatars of a popular monkey god, and self-righteous mobsters masquerading as animal rights activists with an assumed power of marauding human rights come together to make Eeb Allay Ooo! a satire of our times. It has some great writing and photography, which further edify its original content that is so rare in Indian cinema. Bharadwaj's performance sticks out as the highlight of the film which tends to go haywire in the middle and takes the easy way out with an open ending. But for its urgent description of the sorry state of employment in India, its associated elements, and borderline poverty make it a film worth catching. TN.

(Watched and reviewed at the We Are One Global Film Festival on YouTube. Curated by the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival.)

Shashi and his wife live in a Delhi slum. Shashi works as a security guard and the pregnant wife repacks farsaan to earn some additional income. Into their lives comes her brother, Anjani, from the village, seeking a job. Shashi manages to get him one as a "monkey chaser". The stage is thus set for a deep dive into the psyche of a migrant worker. The not so bright Anjani hates his demeaning job with all his guts, yet clings on. Through a series of tragic-comic events, he finally gets dehumanised.

There is an interesting side story about Shashi, when he is given a rifle. His wife cannot stand the sight of it and screams her heart out asking him to hide it somewhere. It is a terrific commentary on power and violence.

Strip the film off its thin comic veneer and you have a great satire. The monkey business is squarely placed in the heart of power in New Delhi. The film is replete with metaphors. There are constant references to the "other" and the various schisms that riddle our society. Trains crisscrossing the frame reinforce this divide firmly. Robots taking away jobs is alluded to.

The film has a documentary feel most of the time. It is difficult to distinguish between actors and real characters. Anjani (Shardul Bharadwaj) and his sister (Nutan Sinha) literally live their role.

Eeb, allay, ooo are the sounds made to scare away the monkeys.

The main character is an "untouchable". It is compared to monkeys. The message of the movie is that religion should not divide us