MEEL PATTHAR MOVIE REVIEW

Blurring the lines between cinema and reality, Meel Patthar offers an unflinching portrayal of a marginalized section of the society 

Every scene of Meel Patthar is lovingly crafted. Typically, a conversation in a scene is designed to convey a great deal of information about the world that is being studied but at the same time to hold back enough so as to sustain a sense of equivocacy that looms large over the film. It is this distinctive style of unobtrusive filmmaking adopted by director Ivan Ayr which is particularly engrossing.

Ivan Ayr, who helmed one of my favorite films of 2018 Soni, tries to capture the essence of the daily life of a truck driver by populating it with flesh and blood actors who walk and talk as if they are unaware of the presence of a camera around them, conversations that are instantly relatable and long single takes which allow you to soak yourself in the scene.  

(Read my review of Soni here: https://filmistaanreviews.blogspot.com/2019/01/soni-movie-review.html)

Meel Patthar is a well-researched film. It is quite evident in the casual exchanges between truck drivers, the pertinent problem of agitation of workers used for loading and unloading of material from trucks against the minimum wage, and most importantly in the honest attempt to give the audience a tour inside the head of an individual caught up in the hassles of the profession. Ayr explores themes like the thankless nature of such a job, the inadvertence towards personal health, and the risk of training a newbie only to realize that the goal of this mentorship is to guide them enough to eventually take over from their master. There is a running track around the sudden death of the protagonist’s wife, but Ayr is in no mood for spoon-feeding us with a backstory and instead imbues the script with a mysterious aura around characters whom we don’t see but are still immensely curious about.

Perhaps, my only problem with the film is that it lacked an uber goal. I understand the fact that it’s not plot-driven, but given that the film dealt with multiple relevant societal issues, it could have further benefitted from anchoring the script in one of these themes which ultimately could take the shape of its true identity. Take the example of Soni. That film was an evocative commentary on the state of the police ecosystem in Delhi but gender bias served as the primary medium for Ayr to express his views on other components of the system. However, to give the director his due, I guess in this film, his agenda was to reinforce the irony of constantly travelling but not getting anywhere in this process.

I am going with 3.5/5 for Meel Patthar. You can watch it on Netflix. Just two films old, Ivan Ayr has silently made his way into the list of directors whose work I eagerly look forward to. I am not sure if this is everyone’s cup of tea but I still recommend you give it a chance. How often can we boast of making a film that stays true to its art form and yet remain gripping in its own charming way?