Island City (Hindi, 2016)

The key for any film is to reach out to the audience by making the characters relatable. One can be quite sure ‘Island City’ has succeeded in doing so. Following the anthology format for such a theme makes a lot of sense as it brings out how a feeling affects the different strata of society. The fact that the filmmaker has also been able to think futuristically bodes well for Asian Cinema which always seems to lag behind the world.

Be it the lifeless workaholic, Vinay Pathak stuck in the MNC, the submissive daughter-in-law, Amrutha Subash and the mother-in-law, Uttara Baokar, looking for relief from monotony through the Idiot Box, the struggle of an introvert girl, Tannishtha Chatterjee, to reject a marriage alliance – the performances of the actors are exemplary and writer-director Ruchika has been able to bring out the innate feeling of loneliness that is common across all lives in the ‘maximum city’.

The best across the 3 chapters should be, “The Ghost in the Machine” which shows much the average middle-class household sees television serials as an escape. Amrutha Subhash who was fantastic in this year’s Raman Raghav 2.0 is again outstanding. The mother-in-law, Uttara Baokar is also a riot on screen. The television serial also has been written and shot exceedingly well with Samir Kocchar playing the titular role of Purushottam delighting the audience with his ‘noble’ antics.

The cinematography by Sylvester Fonseca and the music by Sagar Desai is different for each chapter but still does not overpower the content on screen.

N/A