Milestone

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.

Ivan Ayr made a splash at the international circuit with an engrossing women-cop drama, Soni, released in 2018. The brilliant director is back with yet another riveting tale of a truck driver in Milestone.

Milestone (Meel Patthar) tells the story of Ghalib, a bereaved truck driver whose world falls apart when he loses his wife and performs his duty not just to survive but to escape the state of loneliness. He faces the challenge when the Delhi Transport company hires an intern who pose a threat to his job. There are couple of things before you begin to watch Milestone. It is not a film that will cheer you nor it has any commercial aspect that will entertain you to the core. Milestone is a craft which gets as real as possible. The protagonist played brilliantly by Suvinder Vicky is very much like a common man with tons of responsibility, life filled with problems and challenges, sleepless nights, frustration and anger. However, life goes on and get so heavy making your beard hair turn gray coupled with backaches. Yet, Ghalib does not shy or run away. He stands for his peer who is beaten up by a local party, pays handsomely to his in-law to settle for his wife's untimely death as per his village panchayat's decision and even helps a unknown woman find her brother who goes missing for a week.

The best part of watching Milestone is the characters around Ghalib are so real. Right from the father-son duo who runs the Delhi Transport, society people who are complaining and blabbering about the lift not working to Ghalib's neighbor who reminds him about the pain his wife was suffering in his absence. Milestone is a slow-burn desolated film which will keep you engrossed but at the same time is not everyone's cup of tea considering the current situation. Another highlight of Milestone is the magnificent camera work by Angello Faccini capturing the North India highway, rugged terrain to the enriching climax as the rain falls on the windshield of Ghalib's truck.

Even though it is 98 minutes flick devoid of any light-hearted scene, the screenplay was good keeping me engrossed as I was curious to know more about Ghalib. Art direction evoked a cultural and emotional reaction while background score could have made it better ( I wish something similar to beautiful track composed by Ludovico Einaudi in Nomadland).

Milestone belonged to the Punjabi actor Suvinder Vicky who perfectly plays the role of Ghalib to T. Suvinder Vicky has less dialogues but more of expression which he does with a aplomb. His impeccable acting makes Milestone worth-watching as get engaged with world of truck drivers in India. As I said, the side actors were brilliant as they played the real life character so appropriately.

Milestone is like painting a picture on the canvas which gets better with deep and intense characters who bring out life in a story of a lonesome truck driver. Good 3/5.

This is a masterpiece, we need more movies of this sort. If you are that mainstream Bollywood lover, please do favour by not calling this a documentary. Your tiny brain needs Salman Khan to tantalise it.

A movie that throws light in to the plight of the working class in a capitalist economy.

Kept me glued from the beginning till the end . Lakshvir Singh Saran at this best !!