'Nil Battey Sannata' Reviews - Page 2

So maid in India

Nil Battey Sannata

Director: Ashwini Iyer Tiwari

Actors: Swara Bhaskar, Riya Shukla, Pankaj Tripathi

Rating: ***1/2

I guess your personal exposure to the world has a lot to do with the size or quality of your dreams, or ambitions, as it were. That's really what this film is about.

Rich-poor is a simple dynamic to maintain, if the two live wholly separate lives. And they usually do. The maid (or the house-help) is a curious demographic exception, in that sense.

She is really part of your family. And yet she is so not. She's privy to your expensive needs, cooks food and irons clothes that cost many times over her annual salary. She empathises with your #FirstWorldProblems still.

When the day's work is done, she steps out of your tony place in the evening towards another world or home so diametrically opposite to yours. That in effect is what you watch in this picture.

The conflicts in this film's story are in fact so central to urban lives that even if you didn't care too much for the movie per se, it'd be hard not to be touched by it in some form or the other.

But of course, you do care for Nil Battey Sannata. The title literally means zero; or zero, divided by zero, which is infinity. Metaphorically, it's someone drawing a blank when confronted with a subject they have no clue about.

You care, because, stylistically speaking, production wise, it is a well-made movie to begin with"why else would you otherwise? There's no such thing as a terribly made "important" picture, no? No.

What really stand out at a basic level are the inspired performances in this film though. They'd work equally well if this was a staged play. Young Swara Bhaskar plays a maid, and a working mother to a 15-year-old girl (Riya Shukla, so instinctive, and disarmingly natural).

Mainstream audiences may recall Swara as Salman Khan's sister from Prem Ratan Dhan Payo. But one really took notice of her talent as Kangana Ranaut's Bihari BFF in Tanu Weds Manu. Being ancestrally Bihari myself, I couldn't think of anyone who'd got that Patna accent so pat on.

If anything, her twang is a bit fuzzy here. The film is set in Agra, which is west Uttar Pradesh. Her little daughter dances to Bhojpuri pop at home, which I presume would be a more Bihari / eastern UP thing to do. The kid goes to the local government school. Her grades are hardly worth writing home about. But she's okay with that.

Knowing her family's financial compulsions, and given the company she keeps at school, the li'l girl is happy to aspire to be like her mother"maid, or a posh nanny at best. Her buddy in school wants to be a driver. This is something that gives the mother sleepless nights. She couldn't be working so hard to perpetuate a status quo. "Iss desh mein bachhon ko career decide karneka freedom hi nahin hai (Children have no freedom of choice when it comes to careers in this country)," the daughter tells the mom, in a hilarious twist to the follow your passion' sort of messages inspired by movies such as 3 Idiots.

Swara by the way is herself only 28 years old. She does little to mask her actual age on screen. Her daughter being 15 doesn't seem odd at all, because that teenage is important to this film. It adds another layer to the story. It's an age when kids are most embarrassed by their parents. They believe them to be the avowed enemy of all things forbidden therefore good. This resentment is universal, whether you're the child of a maid or a millionaire. This movie captures that quite well.

How do you tackle your kid's lack of ambition? Do you thrust upon them your own unrealised dreams? These are tough questions. And I don't think this film aims to answer them at all. It is preachy, only in parts, if at all. Which is for the better.

The mom incidentally enrolls herself in the same school as her daughter, perhaps so she can enthuse her to compete with her instead. Does it make sense in the real world? That's not the point. Does it, in the film? Yes, it does.

Like mother like daughter (or, like this reviewer, and many others in the past), take on a formidable common opponent"mathematics. It's one of those subjects that you either get, or you just don't (at least in Indian schools, after the tenth standard in particular, when the level suddenly shoots up to suit IIT aspirants alone).

Both the mother and daughter are presently in the 10^th, preparing for the "Boards", the penultimate Indian nightmare. Frankly, if I had a Maths teacher like the one in this film (Pankaj Tripathi, totally a scene-stealer), I might be tempted to study more only to please him, if nothing else. This teacher is also the principal of the school.

There's something so credulously sweet about some schoolteachers, and God knows we've all grown up with some, who derive their innocence from the young ones they teach. Shrivastav-ji here is one of those (he fully reminds me of Gopinath Dwivedi, my own Sanskrit teacher from school; I'm sure you'll be able to see shades of a masterji you've known as well). He is strict but polite, draped in sarcasm, yet very concerned about his students.

In fact every character in this film has to be unusually positive for us to unquestioningly gloss over the complexities of a story like this. And they are" right from the maid's employer (Ratna Pathak Shah) to the district magistrate (Sanjay Suri).

Do they quite add up in the actual world? Well, if 2+2=4, that would be Maths right? Or if one explored only realism, it would be an "issue-based" film, no? This goes beyond, and therefore it's art, or entertainment actually; and a good one at that. That's more than a good enough reason to sit through an hour and half for sure.

The maid in your home, in that sense, is the closest study in social anthrolopology you're ever likely to get on a daily basis. She tends to your expensive needs, gets paid

http://thew14.com/2016/04/22/nil-battey-sannata-movie-review-by-mayank-shekhar/

Nil Battey Sannata is a delightful story about human relationships. It is a heart-touching portrait of how far a mother can go to realize her dream of seeing her daughter make it big in life. Told with Aanand L Rai's classic simplicity, it strikes a chord with all. The success of any film is defined by how much you either adore its characters or are in awe of them. The former works in this case. Be it Swara Bhaskar, as a housemaid with dreamy eyes or her daughter, the maths-phobic teenager, are both immensely relatable. You fall for them the minute you set your eyes on them. Ria Shukla as Apeksha (fondly called Apu) is a familiar character. She is caring but a rebellious teenager, who fancies Ranbir Kapoor and Salman Khan more than her books. She loves her mother to death but is so consumed by living life carelessly that she is ready to settle for her mom's profession, because of sheer laziness. And yet, you only want to chide the child. Swara as Chanda, the sacrificing epitome of love and care is fabulous. She is everything a perfect mother should be. Pampering Apu is her sole motive in life, even when she knows the daughter is at fault. It is this perfect characterisation that gives the film it's edge.

The film's story subtly touches upon an array of topics in the garb of humour. The social divide, the caste system of education and why education is a privilege reserved solely for the rich. Chanda is a single mother who does a bunch of odd jobs to send her daughter to school. But her ambitionless daughter has regard for her mother's hardwork as she busies herself in killing time with her friends and dancing to Bollywood songs.

It appears to most that female directors bring in more soul to their movies. Ashwini Iyer is a perfect example of that. From the first scene, you are sucked into her world of innocence. She crafts every detail with care - the nooks and corners of Agra, sweet shops, the jalebis, dusty roads, tuition classes, the winter fog...You buy into her world unquestioningly. She has immense faith in her material and her conviction gives the story an edge. The filmmaker, for most part, is sure what she wants to do with the story. She makes it emotional but never melodramatic. There is a strange charm and unique balance in the film. When Chanda pushes her daughter to work harder at school, you know she is right. But the sight of Apu laughing with her friends after school, strolling by the river bring a smile to your face. Even you want to buy the kid some more time to live innocently.

Alas, the brutal education system doesn't spare anyone. She is soon pulled into the web of algebra and trigonometry. Her mother to get her to study diligently enrolls herself in the same class. Apu is embarrassed and she would do anything to get her out of her class. Chanda throws up a challenge her daughter's way. If she scores better in maths than her mother, the latter will quit school. Apu slogged, burned the midnight oil and succeeded in scoring better than her mother in Maths. Once her mission was accomplished, she returned to her lazy ways. It is at this point, the film loses its grip on the story. What follows seems too stretched. It gets loopy and makes it noticeable that the writers didn't know ti finish it off.

For the last half an hour, the film drags. There is melodrama, which was carefully avoided all through and it gets too preachy. Also, the excessive emphasis on mathematics is an inherent problem of the Indian education system. The film pushes forward the same idea unthinkingly. It is like no other subject exists in the curriculum. Why does the Indian education system play down on arts and literature? Iyer's tale is definitely realistic. The issue is pertinent to the Hindi heartland, where Maths rule the notebooks and civil services is what they collectively aspire to crack. At one point, we wished this thought process changes. Why do children from small towns, not have the privilege to choose out-of-the-box careers? Have they been conditioned to believe in the power of government jobs? Most sell their hobbies, which could've landed them lucrative careers as well, simply for the respect of a white-collar job. The film never debates it but as urban audience, you will be compelled to the question.

Saving the minor glitches, it is a well-performed, well-written, moving film. The cast deserves a big applause for getting the nuances so well. Riya Shukla and Swara Bhaskar are fascinating. Pankaj Tripathy is endearing. Ratna Pathak is lovable. But it is after all Swara's film. It is a big risk for any actress to play a mother to a teenager. In archaic times, it was considered the demise of an actress' career. In this day and age, it is a bold move that calls for cheering.

As you exit the theatre misty-eyed, you are overwhelmed by the story. You come out believing that dreams do come true. And hardwork assures you a better chance at it than luck.

We rate the film a 65% on the Pinkvilla movie meter.

#NilBatteySannata looks too forced a drama and,therefore,will not work at the box-office too well. Read my review at: https://komalsreviews.wordpress.com/2016/04/23/nil-battey-sannata/

I wish Swara got a National Award for this already, it would have given it a good buzz!😭 Why did the director & scrpitwriter drop the ball like this!😡 Upset for all the actors in this movie. & even more that the public does little support these type of movies!!!

Swara is a lock for this years NA though. I wanted the film to get big @ the BO so she could win some mainstream best actress awards like Filmfare. Still hoping for the best!

.@ArvindKejriwal declares 'Nil Battey Sannata' tax-free in Delhi http://toi.in/pqxXca via @TOIEntertain