FTII graduate Maisam Ali’s debut feature In Retreat (Be-qayaam) is the first Indian film to be selected in the Cannes Film Festival’s sidebar programme ACID Cannes, which is run by the Association for the Diffusion of Independent Cinema. It’s the story of a middle-aged man (played by Harish Khanna – last seen as Manoj’s father in 12th Fail?), who feels displaced from home but cannot rein back the urge to be always on the move. The movie takes you to heaven-like Ladakh. However, it refuses to pan around any of its picturesque mountains and charming locales. A deliberately opaque and abstract plot, the narrative begins at dusk and closes in the wee hours of the following day. The lead character’s insurmountable inner turmoil stems from acute isolation, so much so that he cannot even muster the courage to show up at his brother’s funeral. Instead, all night he wanders around the small mountain town that he once called home.
Made with limited resources, In Retreat is an extremely evocative film. It uses the evening blue as a metaphor to typify the grief and chaos of a man in his 50s, struggling to enter the threshold of a house where his brother recently passed away. Even missing the funeral, he gets in touch with his brother’s grandson through Facebook, promising him to bring a fishing rod as a gift when he returns home. He reaches Leh in late autumn but puts up at a guest house instead, still trying to nerve himself to face his estranged family. Director of Photography Ashok Meena does an excellent job in plaiting a series of gloomy yet curious sequences that portray life in Ladakh, but not necessarily through the lens of a tourist. This is complemented by Rahul Tiwari’s equally stirring soundscape. Crumbling alleys, rows of inns, low ceilings, rickety sliding doors and occasional sightings of Buddhist temple bells turn characters in a narrative that’s almost bereft of dialogues.
You first see the man walking through a bustling market area. Moments later, he sits alone and finishes a bowl of soup at a local eatery, where the owner is in a hurry to close up for the day. Incidentally, they board the same local bus. She gets off a few stops later. He goes on. The people, their language as well as the sights and sounds of the place are not new to him. Yet he experiences a sense of alienation amid all of them. Would any other traveller feel the same as him? “Geet ko aur uthao, samay ko aur thehrao… taki yeh sadak aur phel jaye… aur hum bach jaye apni, apni kahaniyon se”. Writer-director Maisam raises questions in your mind but doesn’t specifically answer them. In a sense, the movie is vague. But it also nudges you to introspect about why we leave the place we are so attached to? And yet there are times we feel trapped in the place that brings us sukoon.
From the outside, a house may seem innocent or even sentimental. “Lekin char diwari ke andar, na koi shuruat ki umeed, na khatma.” In the dead of the night, he rambles through the known and unknown parts of his hometown – crashing into a private function, confronting a squabbling couple, witnessing a brawl in a crammed corner and even trying to help a drunkard on the road. He’s an outsider now, so he mostly speaks Hindi. But he is also familiar with the local Ladakhi language. In the backdrop, there’s someone drawing a pencil sketch under dim light, maybe unravelling a mystery, maybe not. Another intriguing aspect of the 75-minute film is how the scenes fuse into one another, just like our thoughts sometimes when we fail to find the meaning of what life throws at us. The man then hitches a ride, but couldn’t respond to the taxi driver when he asked, “Phir laut ke kyun aaye aap?”
Maisam Ali’s film In Retreat touches your higher self. Nuanced and unconventional in approach and treatment, the director showcases the dual identity of his protagonist – which may be true about so many of us. Interiority is the biggest takeaway from the film, and Harish (a theatre and film veteran) brilliantly portrays the inner struggle, vulnerability and loneliness of the character. Maisam’s ancestors are said to be from Kashmir, who settled in Ladakh several decades ago. In the movie, he seems to dabble in the ‘insider-outsider’ notion from a personal standpoint too. What are the tenets that define ‘home’? Is it so important to have a ‘cultural representation’? There are times you feel like a stranger in your own mohalla. How would you address that? These are some of the questions that the story raises. Amid concerns over a nameless man’s rootlessness, exile and longing for home, you’ll discover a Ladakh like never seen before. Watch Be-qayaam for its candour and profundity.
In Retreat
Writer and director: Maisam Ali
Cast: Harish Khanna, Sonam Angmo, Mohammad Zohair, Stanzin Dolkar, Tashi Dolma, Tsering Dorjay, Zibun Nissa, Lotos Poro, Manish Khanyal, Tsewang Angdu, Gyalson Dorjay and Ishey Angmo.
Cinematography: Ashok Meena
Sound: Rahul Tiwari
Rating: 3½ stars
(This review was originally published on The Movie Mail’s Instagram page)
