What I liked on Netflix : Tribhanga

Living in Sweden, one gets starved of Indian content on Netflix. There are other alternatives like Amazon prime , chitram TV etc, but for myriad reasons we have not gotten around to subscribing to them.

This means that any Indian content is greedily devoured. Actually devoured is a wrong word. We savour it. The taste can be great, average or in certain instances unpalatable. The shows based out of India, available here tends to veer to the darker side ( Violence, dysfunctional families,molestation or worse, social injustice, poverty etc) and there are very few and far in between bright spots like Love per Square Foot or Ginny weds Sunny , that are fun to watch. Tribhanga started off dangerously veering into the territory of unpalatable and transformed into a solid varan bhat ( or aloo shedo bhaat for a Bong) by the end of it which is to say that while it was not outstanding, it was a deeply satisfying meal watch.

The film is a story of an award winning  writer  ( Tanvi Azmi) who lead an unconventional life for her time, her daughter ( Kajol) who is an successful actress as well as a decorated Odissi dancer and grand daughter ( Mithila Palkar).Written and directed by Renuka Shahane ( of Hum Aapke Hai Kaun / Surabhi fame), the film explores the relationship between mothers and daughters. It deals with three generations of women , on how a mother chooses to live her life and the impact of those choices on the daughter. It starts with Tanvi Azmi being rushed to the hospital and unfolds as her biographer ( Kunal Roy Kapur), daughter and grand daughter rush there to be by her side. There is a light touch to the film , and inspite of the subject , it never gets overwhelming.

Life is a fractal, wherein things remain the same and yet are different. This similarity and difference creates patterns which generations create and are created by. Think about it, a child reminds one of their parents or maybe an uncle or aunt. One might think that there is a new trait being displayed by a child in the family till an elder in the family recognises it as something a grandparent or great great uncle/aunt used to do. One might think that time and distance separate us and yet they seem to disappear in that moment. We make choices to try and create a new history and yet unknowingly perpetuate the pattern unique to a family. This comes out well in the film without being belaboured.

The primary appeal of the film for me was a sense of familiarity. Characters speak in English, Hindi and Marathi. The grandmother is a writer as was mine. This lead to an immediate buy in and made me overlook a sketchy opening. Kajol carries the film well on her capable shoulders and everyone else is also cast aptly.Kajol's character /acting at the start is jarring but she slowly comes into her own over the course of the film and takes the audience along. The moments in the hospital add an emotional depth to the film . The scene where a nurse asks Kajol to help and the way it unfolds is particularly good as is the unfolding interaction between her and Kunal Roy Kapur's character.

All in all, it is a nice sunday afternoon watch, where one is in a mellow mood after a good meal with no sense of urgency.