Vijay Sethupathi’s silent film Gandhi Talks is an ode to its predecessor Pushpak

A cloud of smoke melts away as the man looks at the woman from his balcony to hers. Aditi Rao Hydari’s face emerges with the glow of calculated effect, created by fading smoke and a camera in close-up. Vijay Sethupathi, a balcony away, has a soft smile on his face for her. Apt that they are balconies apart playing lovers in a movie without dialogue, all the communication happening in gestures and telling expressions. Gandhi Talks, the movie, is in many ways an ode to its 36 year old predecessor, Pushpak.

The film, peppered with different genres of music – heavy, melancholic, and everything in between – is as much AR Rahman’s as it is the director Kishor Pandurang Belekar’s. Rahman ruled the film, said Kishor at the end of the film’s premiere for the International Film Festival of India in Goa. It was a film he's been trying to make for 23 years, he said, since the void that came to his life with the death of his father. The silence he felt in those days is what transformed into a script. 

Vijay’s father in the film passes away suddenly, leaving the ill wife and unemployed son in dire straits. Poverty is a habit the son learns to deal with, riding a bus without a ticket while holding the last 10 rupee note from the house, snatching a few rolls of rice from the neighbour’s plate while he looks away. But he hasn't learnt the art of bribery, an area the film touches upon in good measure. Arvind Swamy plays the other lead character in the film, a rich man losing first the people in his life, then the hospital he built, and finally his face, thanks to corrupt politicians and a voyeuring media. 

Pushpak’s hero, made unforgettable by Kamal Haasan’s heartwarming portrayal, is also unemployed, poor, and down to his last penny. There is a young woman he gestures to on an opposite balcony, as well as a rich man whose path he crosses with. Gandhi Talks works as a tribute to Pushpak and its director Singeetam Sreenivasa Rao. But it is only the characters that are vaguely alike; the situations are entirely different, and the making, dissimilar. Both depend on music to accentuate certain moments and rely on the unfailing performances of the lead actors.

Vijay Sethupathi has perfected the fallen hero so well that he fits like a charm into the tiny house at the end of a block of apartments in one of the poorer areas of Mumbai. The hero's life is interspersed with moments of pathos and the comedy that manages to come out of it. Timing, acting, and the music help in a big way. ARR lets the drums go high every time Vijay has an exchange with Siddarth Jadhav’s character, a very interesting one that has been played marvellously by the Marati actor. Arvind and Vijay’s exchanges are fewer and tense when compared to the comical encounters of Vijay and Siddarth. 

In Pushpak, the comedy arises mostly from the unique situation Kamal falls into with the rich man. L Vaidyanathan’s music becomes a soothing companion, the veena taking over Kamal’s scenes with Amala. The expressions are less exaggerated, the storytelling not as loud as Gandhi Talks, which is made like it is written for theatre. Actors are given a free hand, it'd seem, to go wild and overboard with their expressions. It works when you accept it as a film taking a bow to the silent era, to a time of dramatic acting and heightened movements. The climax, set in the grand mansion of Arvind’s character, does become a bit of a drag, scenes turning repetitive and unamusing. 

Rahman's music is meant to be taken note of every step of the way, not to be ignored in the background. The dramatisation is complete and enjoyable for those who can appreciate the theatrics of filmmaking. 

The film has its flaws, but given the uniqueness of the form and the hugely difficult task of keeping a silent film entertaining, Gandhi Talks is a movie to be reckoned with.

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