Producer: Jaideep Punjabi
Director: Prashant Bhargava
Starring: Aakash Maherya,Hamid Shaikh,Mukund Shukla,Nawazuddin Siddiqui,Seema Biswas,Sugandha Garg
Music: Mario Grigorov
Genre: Art-Film
Recommended Audience: Parental Guidance
Approximate Running Time: 1hr 31 min
Film Released on: 15 June 2012
Storyline
Every once in a while comes a film that powerfully flies high, like the most beautiful of kites that holds our hopes and dreams. Director/Writer/Editor Prashant Bhargava’s “Patang” is just such a film that showcases the ultimate chaos and absolute beauty of life, all upon the fragile wings of a kite. The movie has been making the film festival rounds (Berlin Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival) and has been getting quite a bit of attention. “Patang” is a film for those that wish to watch cinema, not to be carried away by a fantasy land, but to marvel instead at the beautiful complexities of human emotion. Seven years in the making, the attention to detail, avant garde use of p.o.v., and unusual camera angles gives the viewer a feeling of being right in the middle of the action.
How many of us have gone back home to our family in India, and all the various emotions that brings with it? The aged mother who is still living in the same house that her children grew up in, the house itself a character with memories etched in walls of memory, and the city (be it Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, or even Bhavnagar). There is an obvious undercurrent of lost feelings that are found once again, in an environment where so many people are living the stories of their lives. “Patang” focuses on a few of these stories to bring us one in which a father/brother/son/brother-in-law Jayesh (Mukund Shukla) comes to Ahmedabad to visit his aging mother Ba (Pannaben Soni),, sister-in-law Sudha (Seema Biswas), and angry nephew Chakku (Nawazuddin Siddique). He’s brought with him, his daughter Priya (Sughanda Garg), who brings with her an antique camera (which resembles one of those Super 8 Film cameras from the 70’s) to record all the things she finds fascinating on her trip. There are also parallel stories that focus on Chakku and a poor child, Hamid (Hamid Shaikh) whose friendship is heartwarming throughout the film. If that wasn’t enough, we get a glimpse into what life for a young man in Ahmedabad must be like with the character Bobby (Aakash Maherya), whose emotions cause him to fall in love with Priya, though he is just a seemingly flirt of the moment for her. Hanging over all of this is the spirit of Jayesh’s older brother who passed away bitterly resenting his younger brother. To reveal more about the plot would be a great disservice to the film, as the joy of watching it is in the unfurling of each character track. All these plotlines are centered around the the Uttrayan (kite) festival that takes place in the state of Gujrat every year on Jan 14th. During this day thousands of kites literally fill the skies as people take to the rooftops to have a joyously raucous time
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