Liar's Dice

It is a movie with a simple plot and a confusing ending.

In a desperate search for her missing husband who has not been in contact for five months, Kamala decides to travel to Delhi where Harud, her husband, works as a construction worker. Kamala, her daughter Manya and their pet goat, meet the mysterious army deserter, Nawazuddin, along the way and they make their journey together in search for Harud.

The film explores serious issues such as the dangers faced by unaccompanied women in public, the absence of workplace safety practices, as well as the recruitment and exploitation of poor migrant workers, the myriad of nameless people who are regarded as a mere statistic to whom this film is dedicated to.

Despite the dark underlying themes, the highlight of the film is the beautiful cinematography as it takes us on a journey from a remote village in the mountains of Himachal Pradesh, which is on the border with Tibet, through to the colourful and chaotic streets of Delhi, a big city which preys on the urban poor, where not even a goat is safe.

I saw this film at the Rotterdam film festival 2014 (IFFR), where it was part of the Bright Future section. The venue (687 seats) was almost fully booked for the European première. From the outside we saw a road movie through various landscapes in a series of provinces of India that we pass, eventually winding up in New Delhi. The route is in itself interesting to watch due to the variety in landscapes. All this happens on the lookout for a husband who went to New Delhi as a construction worker. Contact with him was lost 5 months ago. His wife and young daughter were left behind in an isolated small village near the Chinese border.

In the opening scenes we see the whole area covered with snow, and such a journey is far from easy. The things that they see underway, and particularly what happens in the cities they visit, is completely different from what I had imagined. This is actually the core of the story rather than the trip itself. Given reports in the last year we saw in newspapers about how risky it is for women to travel alone, this journey creates extra difficulties. The woman obviously has no clue that such dangers exist, and must be warned many times against going out alone (and of course, she violates the rule a few times when needing food). Apart from men bothering women underway, there are the extra dangers in the form of several borders they have to cross.

All along the journey she and her daughter are accompanied by a deserter (former border policeman), who they accidentally meet near the village soon after their departure. Initially unwilling to allow him to travel along with them, she gradually accepts his support though still reluctantly until the end. He proves to be very street wise, in addition to providing for "proper" male company. The three together look very much like a normal couple with child, preventing a lot of awkward questions and smoothing their passage through border crossings.

The child role is played by a girl who now is 4.5 years old. She has not acted before. They auditioned on many places, but all those girls had already some camera experience and that was showing. All three main characters (woman, man and child) are perfectly casted and perform very well in their respective roles. And don't forget the additional role of the several times changing environment that we see pass by along the trip.

All in all, the relationship between the man and the woman does not develop in the direction of the happy end one could expect superficially. The uncertainty how and where this trip will end, and what they will find in their assumed destination New Delhi, creates a certain tension that is maintained throughout the running time. The story line can scatter in any direction, and extra plot ingredients are amply present underway where many obstacles have to be surmounted. Anyway, festival visitors ranked this film at 57th place (out of 200), which can be deemed average (neither good nor bad). The finale was not totally clear to me, and certainly different from the "happily lived ever after" one could assume from the outset. That unclarity need not be deemed a defect, and it may even be better this way by leaving something to our imagination.

This is a very focused, gorgeously shot and tense film. If features characters from the fringes with little resources searching for lost ones. With only fleeting hope of restoring a happy life with a loved one that has vanished into the modern maze of anonymity, the lead actress leaves her picturesque mountain village to embark on a desperate journey into the suffocating wilderness of megacities and the violence fostered by money. Shot with a naturalistic realism and a patience to allow the audience to breathe in both stunning natural and urban scenery, the film presents a powerful visual exploration of a woman struggling to restore a life she once had, and the looming threats of abject urban poverty that threaten to swallow her pure soul. I recommend this film for those looking to understand life for those without material wealth, and an audio visual experience of cities that most films won't show.

Geetanjali Thapa at her best. No extravagant acting, just real. Shots and Ambience nicely put. No doubt about Nawazuddin.