With his second feature film Agra, Kanu Behl delves deeply into the dark, uncomfortable issues surrounding sexual repression and the harsh patriarchal reality of India. Behl establishes the tone of his brutal picture right away with a terrifying sequence that features a squirrel, sex, and multicoloured patterns in the opening moments. Agra is the boldest and most important film of the year, having made its world premiere at the Director’s Fortnight Section at Cannes earlier in the year. It is now playing at the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival.
The narrative of Agra centres on Guru (Mohit Agarwal), who shares a two-story home with his mother (Vibha Chibber) that is small and in disrepair. Rahul Roy, the father of Guru, and Sonal Jha, his second wife, reside in a room upstairs. Everybody’s looking at that open terrace area. While his mother envisions starting a clinic with Guru’s cousin sister (Aanchal Goswami), Guru wants to construct his room there and live with his imaginary fiancée. Instead, the second wife wants to use it as an open area for her garden. These unstable residents are poisonous to one another, have no personal space, and are on the verge of a violent breakdown.
Here, co-writer Atika Chohan and writer Kanu Behl are not concerned with the nuances of these interwoven connections. He places the audience squarely in the middle of conflicts and mayhem that are carefully planned to leave just the appropriate amount of room. This family’s casual aggression serves as a microcosmic window into a nation obsessed with privacy and power. One particularly interesting scene has Guru going to see the girl he’s been chatting with online. We are allowed to feel sorry for him for a brief moment because the humiliation is so excruciating. Behl then takes a sharp turn, revealing Guru engaging in a heinous deed in the following scene. There aren’t any simple cuts.
Agra becomes more complicated with the entrance of Priyanka Bose’s Priti, a middle-aged widow who has polio in her left leg. Bose portrays a determined lady whose infirmity doesn’t stop her from following her passion. However, as Guru and Priti’s close relationship develops in the second half, Agra somehow loses its early impetus. The two women in Guru’s house are the ancillary plot point, although it is resolved too quickly. It is simply too implausible to imply that things start to get better for Guru after Priti enters his life. Soon after, not content to sit quietly after the vertiginous outburst of fury that Agra had promised, comes the unsteady finale.
Nevertheless, this is a movie full of confident craftsmanship and strong performances. As Guru, Mohit Agarwal delivers a strong performance that is both wrenching and explosive. Keep an eye out for Rahul Roy, who plays the father of the Guru and does a fantastic job of capturing the years of emptiness. Special recognition goes to Pritam Das and Phillipe Grivel for their deep sound design and Parul Sondh for his masterful production design, which effectively captures the characters’ sense of claustrophobia.
Agra doesn’t always come up with tidy solutions; instead, she aims to confront and probe. Perhaps expecting spectacular resolutions is too popular. Agra is a film that is sure to spark a conversation and captures your interest. The central theme of this heartbreaking and poignant movie is Guru’s fervent desire to be heard. Is anyone ready to listen?
