Pagglait Review: a fresh feminist film Directed by Umesh Bisht, Content is quite refreshing
Death is one such taboo that holds the reasons for everyone grieving, in the grief of the loss, or for pretense is the real concern. The film, Pagglait is one such instance where it witnesses a house filled with relatives and family members, each of them, grieving the demise of the beloved son of the family, Astik. The film casts Sanya Malhotra, Sayani Gupta, Sheeba Chaddha, Aasif Khan, Ashutosh Rana, Shruti Sharma, Raghubir Yadav, and many more semi-known actors, all of them performing to the best of their abilities. Lost among these relatives is Adhik’s wife, Sandhya (Sanaya Malhotra) who is trying to find the reasons to really grieve for her husband. All in all, Pagglait is a ‘fresh feminist film’ that can be a verdict in the name of Pagglait Review. The film is directed by Umesh Bisht.
Refreshing content
In the film, Sandhya is shown as quite unaffected by the fact that her husband has passed away. She is not seen crying, she is not affected by the future, she is not bothered about what is really happening in her house. And her behaviour is quite unlikely of how Indian women should be reacting to the demise of her husband. In fact, many even felt that Sandhya is behaving so because she is in the trauma of the loss. But as the story unfolds, Sandhya gets to the realization that she had had no real affection for Adhik and she also got to know about the women Adhik loved, i.e. Aakanksha.
The film has several small, symbolic, and crucial instances that show the orthodox of Indian families and how everything comes down to a mere level of pretense in a family. Incidents like making Alok live a kind of life, called ‘Satvik’ for the 13 days as per rituals, not allowing Sandhya’s friend to eat in the house because she is a Muslim, expecting Sandhya to be in extreme trauma because of the Husband’s demise, shocked to find Sandhya as a beneficiary of the insurance, encouraging Sandhya to marry the other guy in the family in the name of her own choice.
The film is full of some Power -Packed Performances
Talking about the acting performances, each one of them, Sanaya Malhotra to Sheeba Chaddha can be seen being at their best. All of them are subtle, structured, and well-written characters that have fine layers in their representation. There are small things Adhik’s father being the most modest of all, Sandhya’s mother being authoritative of Sandhya’s life, Adhik’s mother being the submissively observing housewife, etc. And each of them is seen coming out of their zone creating the conflict required to make the film move forward.
Music is pleasant and soothing
Talking about the music of the film, it is as good as it gets, as refreshing as it could be. And for the first time, Arijit Singh is seen composing the music and it can’t be better than this. Sung by Neeti Mohan, Himani Kapoor, Raja Kumari, Amrita Singh, Arijit Singh, Jhumpa Mondal etc, the Album of the film is one of a kind, and is on people’s hit list ever since the release. ‘Phire Faqeera’ definitely stands out in the soundtrack and makes the most authentic appeal.
Overall, the film is a decent, fresh feminist film, with hidden and intertwined incidents of womanhood. It can be seen fitting the genre of dark comedy to a certain extent while the film does remind of Seema Pawha’s directorial debut, ‘Ram Prasad ki Tervhi’. At the end of the film, where Sandhya says ‘jab ladki apne baare mai khud sochne lag jaati hai toh log usko pagglait khte hai’ totally sums the meanings of the film.
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