DIRECTOR: RATING:

RAtanu Mukherjee ukh, by writer-director Atanu Mukherjee, is a slow-paced, intimatelyframed dramatisation of an episode in the life of a middle class family. By all measures it is a significant, life-altering, traumatic episode, and the film tiptoes to it and its aftermath unhurriedly, taking all the time in the world to build up the mild aura of a thriller.

Sparse is a courageous, interesting narrative style. And because it’s tough to pull off, it impresses and holds promise.

Rukh’s screenplay, however, is not just sparse in terms of activity and events, but also complexity and layers that add depth to characters.

Rukh (meaning aspect, but also face), pretends to hold some deep, profound message by mimicking the pace and craft of films which are character studies, films that tell disturbing, affecting tales of human suffering, of men and women flailing against fate accompli, of impossible choices, burdens and small victories, when, in fact, it has very little to say.

Because of its narrative style and because we are in such close proximity to its characters that we almost feel their breath on our face, it’s easy to fall under Rukh’s spell and try to read, perhaps even insinuate, some sublime falsafa. There isn’t any.

Rukh has interesting, engaging form. Sadly, its form is without much function.