Masaan

Thanks to Bollywood for making such kind of movie. An abstract, artistic and full of emotions which portrays real life of Banaras. Film touches delicate issues of life and depicts how expression of those emotions could be dangerous especially in a small town in India. Story revolves around two youths when their life gets changed by death of someone close. But at the end, they understand the cycle of life and death and just tries to move on their life (which I suppose happened, because there's no proper ending of this movie and it was intentional!) Dialogues and songs are completely resonate with the theme of movie. Overall one of the epic movie of recent times with realistic story which leaves viewers to think about the ending and life!! A must watch non commercial realistic movie!

Can a single film give us all so many messages, some so universal that it touches all of us as Human beings?Death is as certain as our birth.All of us of whatever culture or faith we are born or bred in know that basic fact.It does not need a thinker or great education. But a film and its audio visual story telling has such an impact that few film like this one can reveal to you all about living even as One faces death all the time or suddenly at any time unexpected.How like flow of river Ganga which begins as many rivers but merges at a geographical place in India the characters of the film begin far apart from each other.The stage is set all along the river and camera captures it in pain, suffering, will to live on and beauty it shares with those who resides along her banks. The spasm of a growing up youth beyond genders and culture or geography is well captured by first part of the film.Two different approaches to Courtship and eventual beginning of a unit of civilization-The family is revealed.One is daring and experimental walking the talk till its unexpected turn and the Other soft and smooth slowly inter twining relationship which too faces its test.Suddenness of turn of events in both stories shake you up and tests the will power of the protagonists.How they climb the uphill climb challenge that the life suddenly throws against them leaves us with immense faith in the flow of time ,life and ability of the Human beings to live on despite it all.The river along is the perfect analogy that any one can relate it all with.The ghats and life of the most ancient city in the world-Kashi,Benares ,Varanasi is captured with caring camera work.Despite the stage where last rites by Fire are performed as a routine occupation by few of its actors the life of courtship ,education, finding job, friendship between genders and within themselves all blossom in front of you.How friends are add ons to the family helping one in many ways during all times is what we all can relate to.How one has to walk out of it all as life moves on too we all know.Barriers of age,culture,ethos,caste and economic difficulties are multiplied by by gross inhuman injustice of corruption and exploitation from those who are our protectors.How in our utopia we all dream of fair-play justice, freedom to be oneself and power to explore all aspects of life as we want!The central characters have acted so well with such finis in direction of each frames and scenes that we all feel the ups and downs in their lives as if our own for 109 minutes we share with them till screen is lit.What else is life but certainty of death looming large silently unseen over it.Still we all live ,enjoy its each moment,and have ability to heal the wounds and learn to live on as a river does.Film will reinforce a belief that Life will help you ,the world will conspire to help you if you help yourself and continue the journey called Life.Walk On despite it all..

Masaan was felicitated at the Cannes Film Festival with standing ovation from the audiences. True to its hype, Masaan lives up to the reputation and gives you hard-hitting drama with realistic views on life.

Masaan, means "crematorium", tells two parallel story in the holy city of Varanasi.

From the writer Varun Grover( lyricist to some good films like Gangs Of Wasseypur, Ankhon Dekhi, Dumb Laga Ke Haisha) and direction by Neeraj Ghaywan ( 2nd Unit director to Gangs Of Wasseypur and Ugly), Masaan tells you the ugly side of life – The cremation scenes at the ghat of Ganges, the coin-collecting game and police extortion deep- dives into simple life and thinking of Varanasi people, caste system and police pressure. The hitting drama is hair-raising and it will be difficult to gulp down few scenes. Kudos to Neeraj Ghaywan for daring to be different. It takes nerve of steel to tell the not-so- happy ending stories. Art direction is brilliant. Cinematography is astounding with eye-catching scenes of beautiful banks of Varanasi. Dialogues are witty. Background score by Indian Ocean is tuneful. I was expecting the climax to be engaging but was slightly disappointed. Coming to the performances, Masaan has four protagonist and each of them gets into the character. Richa Chadha is brilliant and gives a staggering performance. She is undoubtedly gem of a actor playing various characters ( Nagma Khatoon in Gangs Of Wasseypur, Bholi Punjabin in Fukrey) with ease. Sanjay Mishra just gets better with each role. He is electrifying as usual. Newbie actors Vicky Kaushal and Shweta Tripathi shines and are promising.

Masaan is gritty and realistic cinema which should be lauded for its sheer effort. Excellent 4/5

‎Masaan‬ means a place, where dead bodies are cremated. If you can stand the sight of actual dead bodies being burnt, right after a cute scene of an excited 21 year old guy, whose Facebook friend request has been accepted by his crush; then yes, definitely watch this one.

Its a dark, complex, hard hitting movie, which is set across the enchanting Banaras and the majestic Ganges; revolving around the life of simple human beings.

'Man kastoori re' by Indian Ocean, can be the sole reason for a music lover to buy a movie ticket. At Cannes, this movie by debut director Neeraj Ghaywan won 2 awards; and it is said that very few Asian movies have received 5 minutes of standing ovation during its screening.

The movie has flaws (the absence of that scent of regional tone in the dialogues was the most disappointing part), but the mindblowing performance by Sanjay Mishra & the strong, heavyweight performance from Richa Chadda will make it up.

If you support such good cinema, and want more 'daring' film-makers, then don't miss it.

Masaan is a story set in real Benaras which is better known as Kashi. Why did I mention real Benaras? This film makes you meet the other side of Kashi which is more active in the night than the day, the cremation Ghats where the dead bodies are burnt as per Hindu rituals. The cremation Ghats of Kashi has been mostly portrayed in films and serials as a mystic place but here the director, a débutant Neeraj Ghyawan and co-writer Varun Grover portrays the cremation Ghats as a usual business place where the bodies are burnt after dying. But, the film has a hidden treasure beyond the burning of the bodies in the cremation ghats. It's the burning of people griefs and the courage to let go their guilt to celebrate a new life.

The urge of arriving in life is portrayed by each central character of the film – Richa Chadha as Devi, Sanjay Mishra as Devi's father and Vicky Kaushal as Deepak. While Devi wants to get out of the narrow mindedness of the city and attain more liberty in the form of experiencing love and pleasure, the other character Deepak wants to break his shackles of being a pyre burning lower caste youth of becoming a civil engineer and dreams of marrying his upper caster girlfriend.

Sanjay Mishra runs a small shop at the cremation ghat and is trying to rejuvenate the cold relationship with his daughter and in order to protect her from a scandal; he breaches his own moral principles when he forces a child who works in his shop to take part in the dangerous game of collecting coins from the Ganges. The story brings twist in the each character's lives when they are forced to do a soul searching. Their soul searching brings dark moments in the film when you feel sad about their lives. But wait, there is light after the dawn and no grief is permanent. The films at the end leaves you with a message that Masaan is not only about burning the physical bodies but also about letting go your grief and making your soul guilt free.

The film is beautifully written with a strong message and a good débutant director attempt towards the serious sensible storytelling cinema. The music by Indian Ocean gels with the characters lives and the city's backdrop. The lyrics and music of the songs 'Tu Kisi Rail si gujarti hai' based on Dushyant Kumar's poetry and Man Kasturi re' are simply magical and has lifetime music value. All credits to the Director Neeraj Ghyawan who has been trained under Anurag Kashyap and the co-writer Varun Grover for such a beautiful story. Both the seasoned and the débutant actors have worked hard on their characters and that is evident from their acting.

I want to end this review for Masaan with these few lines in Hindi.. Jo Man ko Chu Jaye Use khubsurat ahsas kehte hai, Jo Atma ko Chu Jaye Use Masaan Kehte hai !