Zero Bridge (2008)

Director:

Tariq Tapa

Writer:

Tariq Tapa (screenwriter)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

In occupied Kashmir, where every day is another lesson in survival, a teenage petty criminal's last chance at escape is threatened when he faces a moral crisis over his last victim.

Plot:

A change encounter between a teen pickpocket and one of his victims changes his plans to escape his dreary life. |

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Mohamad Imran Tapa	...	Dilawar
Taniya Khan	...	Bani
Ali Mohammad Dar	...	Uncle Ali
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Fahad Banday	...	Cricket Boy
Sebastjan Bergman	...	Tourist
Bilal Bhat	...	Cricket Boy
Owaise Qayoom Bhat	...	Zahoor
Umar Rashid Dar	...	Shipping Customer
Towfig Ahmed Gojri	...	Cricket Boy
Musharraf Khan	...	Shipping Customer
Afrooza Langoo	...	Sister Afrooza
Hilal Ahmed Langoo	...	Passport Office Clerk
Shaheena Langoo	...	Sister Shaheena
Michael McLughan	...	Tourist
Shah Nawaz	...	Zero Bridge Police
Niyaz Ah. Patloo	...	The Musician
Burhan Qadfir	...	Processing Officer
Sultan	...	Passport Dealer Bodyguard
Khurshid Ahmad Tarbaji	...	Bani's Uncle
Tawfil	...	Jewelry Shop Owner
Tiger	...	Passport Dealer
Mohsin Maqbool Zargar	...	Motorcycle Thief

Runtime:

India:96 min

Country:

India | USA

Language:

Urdu | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Filming Locations:

Kashmir

Company:

Joyless Films

Zero originality

Kashmir-born Tariq Tapa, having studied film-making at CalArts, decided to shoot his first feature film in his country of origin, specifically in the area around Zero Bridge (which gives the movie its title), where he grew up. His intent was to paint a realistic, gripping portrait of contemporary India, his most obvious source of inspiration being, by his admission, Vittorio de Sica's Bicycle Thieves. A noble project, on paper at least; as it happens, Zero Bridge is actually everything but a piece of Asian Neorealism. In reality, it's a teen drama. And not a very good one.

The very basic story follows the troubled fate of Dilawar (Mohamad Imran Tapa), a young boy who has been abandoned by his mother (what a surprise) and is forced to work for his exploitative uncle (Ali Mohamad Dar). He makes some money on the side by stealing wallets doing his former classmates' homework, hoping that one day he'll be able to leave the area and find his mother. One day he has to get some documents signed and meets Bani (Taniya Khan), a clever girl who studied in the US but can't go back because her passport was stolen along with other belongings. Naturally, Dilawar is the one who stole them. And just as inevitably, he falls in love with her. No prizes for guessing for how it ends.

Similar scenarios have occurred in movies and on television since the dawn of time, and Tapa's biggest mistake is he hasn't done anything to make the plot a little original. The only "artistic contribution" worth mentioning is the hand-held camera he uses to tell the story. Such a style has two purposes: a) it gives a documentary feel to the story, which supposedly adds to the realism (it doesn't); b) since most of the shots are close-ups of Dilawar's face and hands, it's meant to make us identify with the lower-class protagonist. it doesn't work, primarily because not just Dilawar, but every single character is as wooden as they come, alongside a done-to-death narrative, including the completely gratuitous moment when a tourist asks our "hero" is there's any reason for him to stay in Kashmir. The hand-held approach isn't helpful either: most of the time the film looks like it was made by Paul Greengrass during an epileptic seizure (think The Bourne Ultimatum on crack) , so "infuriating" is a more fitting description than "compelling".

Bottom line: this dull, uninspired soap opera doesn't deserve to exist. Forgive the cheap joke, but there are zero reasons to watch it.