Ivan Ayr is a craftsman, a gifted storyteller who proved his supremacy in his feature debut "Soni" a slow burn character study. I was excited to see what the director does next and read a lot of positive reviews for his latest film in festival circuits. I finally watched Milestone, it's on Netflix and I'm still in awe thinking how this movie was pulled off. It is a work that does not speak much, but still packs a punch. The film paints a bleak portrait of alienation through the story of a bereaved truck driver, who confronts himself in the wake of his wife's death. He is on the verge of losing his job, his truck (2nd home), his identity and everything. All this to the benefit of a young new trainee and the story just follows whatever is in real life, the generation gap and its characters. From scene to scene, Milestone proves that in cinema, anything can happen with less words and the impact is loud. The duration of the long shots stretches and stretches, imposing a grim atmosphere alternating between stark close-ups and long shots as the characters appear tiny amidst the desolated village. It manages to pull us into the world of the Truck driver. The extended camera trips past rusty empty landscapes, collapsed roads, apartment and small objects in the truck create a hopeless atmosphere. At the same time, Ivan also demonstrates a tendency towards tension scenes with minimalism based on political and social degeneration that resonates with the system. The most memorable moment is in the climax - that final scene with rain will remain indelible in my memory, I bet it will leave you gobsmacked. To say much of this film is to ruin it, a pure cinema experience that strikes a surprising balance; It simply shouldn't be missed. I would also recommend Las acacias (2011) by Pablo Giorgelli.
That said, I'm glad that the future of Indian cinema is in good hands with talents like Ivan Ayr, Prantik Basu, Ekta Mittal, Ronny Sen, Sajin Babu, Bhaskar Hazarika, Pushpendra Singh, Ashim Ahluwalia, Aadish Keluskar, Vijay Jayapal, Sidharth Srinivasan, Aditya Vikram Sengupta, Lubdhak Chatterjee, Vedant Mitter, Shlok Sharma, Chaitanya Tamhane, Lijo Jose Pellissery, Shambhavi Kaul, Rima Das, Leena Manimekalai, P. S. Vinothraj, Arun Matheswaran, Arun Prabu Purushothaman, Amartya Bhattacharyya, Kabir Mehta, Arati Kadav, Krishnendu Kalesh, Sruthil Mathew, Brothers Babusenan, Prathap Joseph, Pandian Sooravali, Amal Noushad, Rahman Brothers, Nila Madhab Panda, Sanju Surendran, Payal Kapadia, Geethu Mohandas, Sandhya Suri, Amit Dutta, Amit Masurkar, Rohit Mittal, Arun Karthick, Gurvinder Singh, Mangesh Joshi, Achal Mishra, Ridham Janve, Krishnendu Kalesh, Devashish Makhija, Anand Gandhi, Udita Bhargava, Indranil Roychowdhury, Nipun Dharmadhikari, Abhijeet Warang, Balaji Vembu Chelli, Thiagarajan Kumararaja, Umesh Amshi and others.
