Film: Bogda

Film: Bogda
Critic's Rating:  2.0/5
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Long, dark and unending

Nisheeta Keni’s Bogda is a well-intentioned, yet confused attempt at meaningful cinema. It is the story of a strained relationship between a mother and daughter, and the journey that may bring them together or forever drive them apart. It seems like a good idea for a feature film, but gets lost in the presentation.

Tejaswini (Deshpande) is a dancer, but has to work a menial job to earn a living. Her mother, Mai (Joshi), has raised her alone after her father’s death and Tejaswini feels compelled to help her out. The mother has become eccentric over the years and now that Tejaswini wants to leave the village to pursue a career in dance, she finds herself unable to broach the subject at home. Then the mother becomes terminally ill, and as she takes a final pilgrimage that will bring her closer to death, Tejaswini accompanies her on the journey.

Bogda is perfectly fine as far as visual elements and sound are concerned. Clear thought has gone into the way the film looks. The compositions, colour coding and visual grammar are fine, though combined with the theme, the overall effect is depressing. Shubhashish Bhutiani’s Mukti Bhawan (2016) had also tackled a similar subject, though humour was used to lighten the tone. This film remains grim throughout, and with a duration of more than two-and-a-half hours, it seems interminably long.

The narrative of Bogda is abrupt in places, and while it sticks to the conventions of art house cinema, it doesn’t give the audience an immersive experience. With sudden odd angles, stylised dialogues and forced use of symbolism, it keeps underlining the film’s artificial construct. Characters seldom behave naturally. Kishor (Kokate), the driver taking Tejaswini and Mai on the final journey, probably behaves the strangest, but the other two are not far behind. The film shifts between realism and symbolism, and never settles on either. If told in a more realistic way, the story would have been more heartfelt and easier for the audience to perceive, but that just doesn’t happen.

In spite of this, Mrunmayi Deshpande and Suhas Joshi try to give the best they can, and if you like the film, their performances may have a lot to do with it. Kokate’s driver is simply too odd. I had liked his work in Kaul, a film much stranger than this one, but here he seems uncomfortable in the character he plays.

The length of the film and the climax are two things which could have made a substantial difference in the overall impact of Bogda. From the story narrated by the driver until closing credits, the climax is simply too strange. One understands what the director is trying to do, but it doesn’t work. I suspect that a ruthless shortening of the film, to 90 or 100 minutes, would have also helped making it more accessible. In its present form, it is merely an exercise in doing something different.

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