still image from follower.
cast: Raghu Prakash, Donna Munshi, Harshad Nalawade and Hrishikesh Sanglikar
directed by: Harshad Narawadeh
evaluation: 4 Stars (out of 5)
Writer-director Harshad Narawadeh sets his debut. follower, on the battlefield, his homeland. Belgaum in Karnataka is a Marathi-majority city that has been the source of decades of dispute between the two states and communities.
A solid independent film foregrounds the rift between Belgaum’s major language groups. This division is seen from the perspective of Marathi-speaking youth, devastated by the feeling of being discriminated against and deprived of what they rightfully belong to.
A journalist with an online media platform in the business of amplifying community outrage, the young man draws inspiration from demagogues’ inflammatory speeches urging supporters to unite and fight.
follower Premiered at the 52nd Rotterdam International Film Festival. Performed as part of the festival’s focus: The Shape of Things to Come? section, the insightful film explores the socio-political landscape that produces thoughtless intolerance and the otherization of language and its speakers. mapping.
Examine the cumulative factors that lead Raghvendra ‘Raghu’ Pawar (debutante Raghu Prakash) into the arms of a chauvinistic group that believes Marathi-speaking people are treated as second-class citizens in the cities to which they belong. , a delicate and subdued drama. It aims to incite passion for the people and government of Karnataka.
Facing a number of emotional and work-related challenges that worsen with each passing day, Raghu has become a social media warrior, fueling anger at the alleged injustices that come across his people. Hairy and overwhelmed with a life that goes nowhere.
Raghu has an engineering degree and owns a gift shop. A prisoner of his own frustration, he, like the Kannada-speaking inhabitants of Belgaum, blames his family, his widowed mother and NRI brother, for the misfortunes.
Raghu follows YouTuber Sachin (played by the director himself), who runs a campaign against a new Marathi leader who incites the herd to fight discrimination, and a schoolteacher and often single mother who gives birth to children. He is friends with Parveen Mujawal (Donna Munshi). The brunt of the apparently irrational Raghu burst.
The movie opens with Raghu being in police custody. He then spends a month, then a year, shedding light on the protagonist’s gradual descent into anger and despair.
At one level follower is about 3 friends. She’s one of them, she knows exactly what she wants out of her life, and she’s a tough woman who isn’t expected a quarter by anyone.
These three represent the diversity of Belgaum in terms of social background and linguistic affiliation. Raghu is a middle class boy, Sachin belongs to the wealthier class and Parveen is a Muslim woman who has moved away from her abusive husband.
The film is also about a troubled leader (Atul Deshmukh, seen only on computer and mobile screens) who seeks to exploit the grievances of the city’s Marathi speakers for his own political purposes.
the most important, followera microcosm tale of the personal impact of divisive politics, explores a hate-mongering culture increasingly fueled by over-ventilating politicians and their troll armies and lynching mobs.
In addition to featuring relentlessly poison-spitting politicians and rhetoric-driven youths, Follower delves into many of the social and linguistic flaws that make it easier for scouts to spot troll farm recruits. .
Playing the character of Kannadiga who is blithely responsible for pushing Raghu over the edge, Narawadeh doesn’t point a finger at either Raghu’s propensity or Sachin’s stubbornness in the face of provocation. What the director does instead is spell out what makes the protagonist an easy piece of meat for aficionados looking for unsuspecting infantry.
Raghu’s mother wants him to get married and settle down. His part-time job and gift shop (who received rent from Cannadiga) do not bring him enough money for him to consider marriage. He doesn’t even make eye contact with his brother, who is comfortably at home in the United States.
Left to fend for himself, Raghu finds what he thinks is a way out of the valley. Even if that happens, it’s just a shortcut to a dead end guarded by a group that thrives on amassing zealots.
Nalawade, along with cinematographer Saket Gyani, coordinated the seamless verbal exchanges between the characters and filmed them with a fixed camera. This camera is trained on Raghu, who are often upset, confused, or ruining fights on their hind legs. .
This kind of unobtrusive staging not only suggests the character’s growing sense of alienation and the continued shrinking of his worldview, but also the fact that he’s been unknowingly pushed against a wall. I’m here.
Raghu is drawn into many conflicts over the course of the 100-minute film. A girl he visits with a marriage proposal offends him: “Does the majority deserve to give you power?” Is not …
On another occasion, he gets into an altercation with the independent-minded Parveen. The reason is that he can’t see the tip of her nose and he thinks he needs to be her savior. Without overt disdain, followers reveal Raghu’s innate awkwardness in matters dealing with women. It’s not that he finds women pushy, but he does tie himself in knots around her woman.
The ragout is not bad. It’s just that he is unclassified and vulnerable to manipulation. That partially explains why he does what he does. But the film offers no simple explanation. With all the instability in his life, family, and environment, Raghu tends to jump off the wheel, even with his best friend Sachin.
one of the defining aspects of follower It’s the linguistic diversity of the soundtrack. The characters speak Marathi, Kannada, Hindi (with a unique levity and phonetic slant anchored in the soil of Belagavi) and English, creating an engaging tongue-in-cheek melange that flows in a fun conversational mode. To do.
follower Even in a way such “controversial” films are rare, the statement about the dangers of radicalization is unwaveringly and firmly pointed, albeit non-judgmental. It’s a timely film that deserves as many viewers as possible.
Featured video of the day
Kareena, Shahid Mira, Rani Mukerji and other guests attend Yash Roohi’s birthday party
