By
Praveen Lulekar
 |
| Mrunal Kulkarni in A Rainy Day |
If you ever attempt to watch David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, you will mostly be
aggravated as you hardly understand anything in the first go. Chances are that
you will end up feeling the same for A
Rainy Day. Why the comparison? Because both films have a large part of
their storyline in a dream sequence. Both mingle with the psycho thriller
terrain. Difference - while Mulholland… becomes
incomprehensible because it beats your intelligence, A Rainy Day, lost in intricate technicalities, fails because of its
over simplistic screenplay and stark absence of a logical duel.
Let’s get the story out of the way before we discuss this curious case. The film is about Mugdha (Mrunal Kulkarni) who somehow starts to see flashbacks of her ambitious husband Aniket’s (Subodh Bhave) past, and discovers that he is an immoral man. The film tries to highlight every kind of corruption in our society. We meet many characters, played by very good actors, on the way in small roles. There’s good music, exceptional background sound and an expansive use of the camera.
The point of discussion is the treatment. We need to
understand this on two levels - first is the cinematic treatment, as in the
technical angle, second is the style of narration. Both are obviously related. A Rainy Day, with technicians like Resul
Pookutty and Sanjay Jadhav, scores on the technical front. The various sounds
of rains capture moods of the rain perfectly. The sound design, right from the
first scene, is extremely engrossing.
For the narrative, Director Rajendra Talak chooses a
non-linear, yet very simplistic format. There’s no doubt that Talak has an
amazing sense of frames and a terrific grip on his visuals. But like any
indulgent technician, he keeps details of the story secondary. We never get to
know the normal, happy side of his leading lady. From scene one, Kulkarni sulks
in an unknown suffering. How she gets
the visions of her husband’s past, remains hidden. Her husband seeks help of a psychiatrist
friend (Ajinkya Dev, terribly miscast), but not for her mental health, but
because he doubts he must have told her all his secrets. The pattern repeats–
Mugdha reveals a secret in a dramatic fashion, we see a flashback and Aniket
meets someone, his female colleague (Neha Pendse) or his PA, for a face-off. He
also doubts this as black magic! All this, while the psychiatrist is just
around the corner.
Many
characters - a minister (Sanjay Mone), corrupt babus (Kiran Karmarkar and Manoj Joshi), Aniket’s boss (Harsh
Chhaya), Mugdha’s mother (Sualabha Arya) visit us. All actors perform their
part well. The leads however fail to convince. Kulkarni never gets time to
establish her character, she looks lackluster. Bhave is trapped between a
devoted husband and a shrewd businessman.
Every movement, every sequence is an event for Talak, There is an abundant use of slow motions, grim, still frames that have superb lights and of course the haunting rain, which visits even in the two year old flashbacks. There is an eye for beauty everywhere but realistic flow gets hampered. In the end, the motive might only be to show human corruption, but then why use such a tricky way of storytelling? I guess, only Talak can answer that…
M4M Says: One Time Watch
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