Gurgaon: Respires Anaerobically To The Point Of Asphyxiation

Chilling, disturbing and suffocating yet cathartic

For a person who has lived in the excruciating heat and humidity of Bombay, the sub-zero temperatures are as good as the first world luxuries to an African tribal.

But every once in a while, you are teleported from reality to the world where there are no rules, a world which is grim & sombre to disturbing proportions and that day, was something similar. That was the day when I witnessed Shanker Raman’s directorial debut Gurgaon on ‘big screen’.  The reason I stress on the term ‘big screen ‘, is because unlike our mass audience that finds intellectual solace in films like Mubarakan or Tubelight, there were few people who had nothing to do on a weekend. Hence, they turned up for a movie at a hall where the seats told the stories of human existence: empty, rigid and stuck at one place.

After the ritualistic horrendous anti-tobacco advertisements explaining the human anatomy to shreds (One of which hammers down the pleasant personality of Rahul Dravid, ‘brick by brick’), the film started and spread across its frosty blanket. The colour temperature of the film brought down the room temperature inside the theatre. Soon, the hall became a Siberian graveyard on a terrain engulfed by a deathly silence with each seat staring at the screen exactly the way a tomb looks at the grainy moon.

The film nearly has all the elements of a neo-noir. It’s a story of Singh family: Kehri Singh, played by Pankaj Tripathi is a patriarch, a peasant who turned into a real estate mogul. Nikki Singh portrayed by Akshay Oberoi, is the elder son and is the quintessential Gurgaon boy. Ashish Verma plays the younger son. Aamir Bashir’s Hooda is a police officer and is the younger brother to Kehri. Preet Singh, the daughter played by Ragini Khanna, is a foreign return architect. And, Shalini Vats portrays the role of a mother, who has dedicated her entire life to the family without any questions asked.

The story is very simplistic - Preet returns to the town of Gurgaon after completing her studies and soon falls prey to the blind pit that the city carelessly leaves open. She is kidnapped by Nikki, her own brother, who hatches the plan in order to make some quick buck so that he could bail himself out of troubled waters. 

The film hounds you with the real life portrayal of ugliness that hides in human beings. On the surface, the plot may seem to be directly taken out of the earthen pot of a crime patrol episode but, it is far more hard boiled. The treatment rendered to the film screams brilliance in almost every frame. And, the good thing is that Shanker hasn’t made it a pastiche of the likes of Anurag Kashyap, Quentin Tarantino or David Fincher. Shanker may have resided, closely studied, adored and breathed in the air of cinematic coal mines of these barons, but he has managed to write a riveting experience of his own with the graphite that Gurgaon is.

However, the film is not just the story of a city or Singh family and, this is something which makes it an engaging watch. Gurgaon is in a way, a narrative on our bureaucratic set-up too. Kehri Singh is the central authority but still battles its dysfunctional verticals that try to slip out from the clutches. This happens due to the absence of friction ridges in fingers, thereby implying that the authority does not have an identity of its own, it’s just a faceless entity with changing names.

In addition, there’s always a sordid past which the authority tries to hide by trampling it under the foot. But, the past loses its viscosity and leaks into a shadow the moment it is subjected to the daylight of questioning.

Kehri too, has a past that has long been silent but now, the silence barks right on his face. The noise is deafening and the grip is firm to the extent of leaving one paralysed. The character of Kehri Singh can be best summed up in a quote by Dale Dauten, “Bureaucracy gives birth to itself and then expects maternity benefits.”

Akshay Oberoi’s character of Nikki Singh exemplifies the second in-line command. He has the access to the best of resources but, he lusts after full control. In Lord Acton’s words, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The second line command passively counters the authority but doesn’t want to overturn the system because he dreams of being at the top one fine day and bringing down the system would prove fatal for himself. Nikki’s iniquitous desires parked at the harbour, double up as warships when hit with the torpedo of crisis and, cause collateral damage in almost all directions. With a highly radioactive nucleus and a considerably low half-life, Nikki keeps on decaying into something else, even before you could comprehend. It’s because of these properties that his character has multiple sinister shades and, it emits gamma radiations that are both suffocating and toxic.

Ashish Verma’s Chintu is the aimless cog in the machinery. He finds comfort in being a part of it without even evaluating his existence & importance in the system. Like the cog, he has teeth but, they’re not for biting. Instead, they set the momentum for the next occurrence in the chain of events. He is also the weakest link but it doesn’t matter as long as he is in close association with the strongest one, who guards him and covers up his incompetence.

Preet is the only sane voice in this set-up. She is the whistle-blower, the one, who wants to restore balance and minimize the damage so as to make things sustainable. Change is never easy and more often, it is painful. People like these are the agents of change and naturally, are at maximum risk.  The Singh mansion is excessively populated by the corrupt, who individually conspire in silence and, Preet’s inclination towards sanity sounds like a gunshot fired from a magnum with its barrel placed right inside the ear canal. For whistle blowers, the management or the governing body may promise an open door policy or action but, they always end up tearing themselves while passing through the door that hinges on exhortation and favoritism.

Hooda played by Aamir Bashir, is the enforcer. The enforcer comes into picture when situations go out hand and more often, ends up being ridiculed by the corrupt agencies that hold the locus of control. People like these are either brought, influenced or eliminated. The fate of the enforcer depends on the degree to which the system is corrupt.

And finally, Shalini Vats’s character as the citizen is a part of the system but still has been systematically kept out of all major decision-making that directly affect her. Like every burgess, her character has long withstood the atrocities committed by the system. Unfair share, crippling rights under the pressure of duties and denial are some of the traits that define a citizen. They have the highest degree of patience but that too comes with conditions applied. When patience is challenged beyond a limit, it leads to revolt.

However, a revolt may not always produce positive results just like the Révolution française that started with destruction of monarchy, progressing into the execution of Louis Capet and culminating into the tyranny of Napoléon. It’s the tectonic movements of constant battles and revolutions that form the utopian landscape.

Each character in Gurgaon has been cleverly designed keeping in mind the normality of human relations. Vipin Bhati, Sourabh Ratnu, Yogi Singha along with Shanker have managed to impart lucid borders to each character against the stygian water through the buoyant force of their writing.

Gurgaon is one Indian city that is constantly under construction and simultaneous destruction, literally, metaphorically and morally and, Gurgaon emphasizes on the fact that the most dangerous things on earth are not weapons of mass destruction but the 3.1 lbs that resides comfortably in your cranium and controls everything right from the diplomacy of world politics to the human relations that walk on the thin razor-sharp edge.

(Image Credits: Jar Pictures, MR Filmworks and Hashtag Film Studios)