Biriyani – A Lot Of Taste, Sans The Bollywood Masala
Posted: Sunday, December 05, 2010
by Drunken Mystic
http://drunkenmystic.wordpress.com
Try the original Hyderabadi Biriyani, and you will never say enough! It's rich taste comes from the ingredients used for the recipe - starting with the world famous Basmati rice, mixed with mutton or chicken, rich garam masala, onions, garlic, lemon juice, coriander leaves, caraway seeds, cinnamon, cardamom, saffron, cloves, plenty of oil and ghee and above all, a little bit of your creativity to suit your pungency.
But this is not the real Biriyani I am talking about here. After watching film director Vijaya Varman’s short film of the same title, produced by Mohan Narayanan (of The Payyoli Pendant book fame) I decided to write a review on the film. But this movie is devoid of any masala close to the above recipe but has plenty of pinches (to one's conscience) of salt in the story.To get this answer, you will have to explore it yourself.
The story begins with Lakshmi (“Poo" Myla), a 13 year old girl doing the chores of her employer's house right from sunrise with cleaning the entrance gates, to sweeping the dry leaves in the garden, watering the plants and later with mopping the floor of the house. Lakshmi’s world has varying contrasts of the Indian rich and poor, which is not perceived by most of us – due to our sheer apathy for our fellow humans. The director has shown both the contrasts and the apathy clearly through the vision of his lens, a stark reality of Life easily ignored.
While Lakshmi is tediously cleaning the floor, Anjana (Baby Preena) is happily eating noodles watching Tom & Jerry on television. Lakshmi, also a child like her, wants to get a glimpse of the same animation, but her world of child labour doesn’t permit her to relax. She has been bonded by the draconian attitude of Anjana’s mother when she emerges from her shower and knocks Lakshmi on her head ordering her to concentrate on her job.
This is the job of Lakshmi who has quit school as she needs money to tend her sick mother and younger brother, all of them surviving on leftovers. All they get to eat is the old rice of yesterday preserved in water, so they can combat hunger with the starch formed through the night. And if there is not enough rice, plain water will do.
Anjana gets a new dress for her birthday which Lakshmi appreciates and is prompted to compare it with her own shabby,worn out outfit. Anjana eats noodles and chocolates while the mistress of the house offers Lakshmi the rice leftover from the previous day. Lakshmi has to eat fast to finish washing a truckload of utensils for the Biriyani for Anjana's birthday party while Anjana merrily watches Mr Bean on TV. These are the contrasts I am talking about.
Lakshmi is filled with great anticipation for tasting the wonderful Biriyani, a food of the rich. Tamilbig screen and TV character actor Charlie has honoured this film with his appearance as a guest artist (he actually didn't accept any payment) in the role of the doctor. Although he seemed to bring in the arrogant status of a screen actor and show his importance, when Lakshmi approaches him to ask if there is any medicine he could prescribe for her mother, brother and herself to make them not feel hungry, his arrogant mask dissolves in the waves of emotional pangs.
Biriyani brings moments of tears to the eyes as the portrayal of the sharp contrast between the rich and poor has been shown very vividly. There is hardly a moment the audience can miss the message that pricks the conscience. “Poo" Myla has certainly done great justice to her role by shifting into the skin of the character she plays.
I am purposely leaving the review incomplete for you see how the poor girl enjoys the very anticipation of the Biriyani - until the lenses move to Tommy, the rich household's Alsatian pet dog.
Besides being the film's producer, Mohan Narayanan has also composed the music, soulful, with excerpts from Sergi Prokofiev, and has also provided the English and German subtitles for this film in Tamil language. The story, screenplay and creative direction is by Subhalakshmi Ramsingh.
The film entered the final (jury) rounds of both the New York Short Film Festival in February 2010 and the Granada (Spain) Short Film Festival in March 2010. Fittingly enough, “Poo" Myla received the Best Actress award at the Los Angeles Short Film Festival – the world's biggest festival in its category-in April 2010 for her stupendous performance.
Watch the film (with English subtitles) on Youtube – directly go the URLhttp://www.youtube.com/user/bhagyanjaliglobal - the entire 30 minute film comes in 3 parts due to the 10 minutes restriction for uploads on Youtube.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Your opening paragraph has left me very very hungry! Does the poor child not get anything? That's heartbreaking. Thanks for the link, I'll watch it later.You're smart even though I didn't reveal the climax. :-) Thank you.
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