Masaan (2015)

Along India's Ganges River, four people face prejudice, a strict moral code and a punishing caste system as they confront personal tragedies.

Director:

Neeraj Ghaywan

Writers:

Akbar Allahabadi (poetry written by), Bashir Badr (poetry written by)

Stars:

Richa Chadha, Sanjay Mishra, Vicky Kaushal

Top Rated Indian Movies #80 | 22 wins & 8 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Richa Chadha	...	Devi Pathak (as Richa Chadda)
Sanjay Mishra	...	Vidyadhar Pathak
Vicky Kaushal	...	Deepak Chaudhary
Pankaj Tripathi	...	Sadhya Ji (as Pankaj Tripathy)
Vineet Kumar	...	Doctor Chaudhary
Bhagwan Tiwari	...	Inspector Mishra
Singh Bhupesh	...	Sikander Chaudhary
Satya Kam Anand	...	Vikram Mallah
Saurabh Chadhary	...	Piyush Agarwal
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Mohit Abrol	...	Traveller Boy
Deepak Agarwal	...	Father at Coaching Centre
Harsh Agarwal	...	Son at Coaching Centre
Manish Agrahari	...	Pizzeria Waiter
Jamal Ahmad	...	Jeweller #1
Ana	...	Foreigner Girl #2

Storyline

Four lives intersect along the Ganges: a low caste boy hopelessly in love, a daughter ridden with guilt of a sexual encounter ending in a tragedy, a hapless father with fading morality, and a spirited child yearning for a family, long to escape the moral constructs of a small-town.

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Plot Keywords:

blackmail | love | interrupted sex | reference to facebook | train | 

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Taglines:

Paths of grieve intersect on the Ganges River.

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Genres:

Drama

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Did You Know?

Trivia

Sanjay Mishra stayed on banks of a river Ganga in a small river away from the films unit. And would travel by boat to the shooting location.

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Goofs

The Indian Railway appointment letter that Devi supposedly reads is actually a copy of The Indian Railway Servant's Pass Rules (1986) a free and concessional travel privilege for railway employees.

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Quotes

Devi Pathak: Do you live alone?
Sadhya Ji: No, I live with my dad. My dad lives alone.

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Soundtracks

Bhor
(Credited onscreen as "Bhor Bhor")
Written by Sanjeev Sharma
Performed by Indian Ocean
Music composed by Indian Ocean
Vocals by Amit Kilam, Rahul Ram and Himanshu Joshi
Bass by Rahul Ram
Guitars by Nikhil Rao
Drums and percussion by Amit Kilam

User Reviews

Astounding achievement!

FIPRESCI, Un Certain Regard and standing ovation at Cannes, standing ovation in Ahmadabad and now a standing ovation in Bangalore, Neeraj Ghaywan's Masaan is a film that deserves high accolades for its exceptionally well written screenplay and execution. This year has been good for Indian cinema with some of the best films like "Court", "Killa" and "Kaaka Mottai" hitting the screens. Masaan joins this list of elite films. These films do not have big stars, big investments but the honesty in film-making and the content that they carry is something that Indian cinema has not attempted before, even attempted not this subtle. "More subtle, more the impact" seems to be the mantra of these films. From larger than life narratives these films bring in the shift to depict stories of ordinary people in mundane situations and their reactions. There is a kind of honesty and faith in the film which one can easily get engaged to. This not only brings the freshness breaking the stereotypical norms also gives out thoughts through the different layers the narrative has. The stories that narrate the connect of human emotions need to be explored more. "Masaan" deals with the connects of relationship in a very mature and subtle way. It keeps away from the usual melodrama. It thrives of modernism though tied with traditional values. "Its a bold film with values rather than bold visuals".. Each one of the characters has a story with real life turmoils. Some of the scenes are brilliant. Thanks to the film-making brilliance. Such experiments have an overwhelming and everlasting impact on the audience. You realize how cinema can be used as a powerful medium. You train yourself to care about good cinema watching films like "Masaan"and i think this is something such kind of films do beyond what they are normally expected to. The joy of having watched a satisfactory film is one of the best feelings any film-lover will want to have. It has become a rare phenomenon in Indian cinema. Commercial cinema has really cared about reaching the 100 Crore mark rather than providing satisfactory cinema. On one end we have the high grosser films and the other we have films like "Masaan" which mainly get tagged as "festival" films and in between films like "Piku" which is good cinema with a commercial appeal. I feel its time to get these festival films a commercial space. Its wrong for a good film to be bound only by festivals, it needs support from the theaters and mainly from the audience to thrive commercially. This would definitely help bring in a change of sense of cinema and help Indian Cinema grow.

Details

Official Sites:

Watch masaan on Disney+ Hotstar

Country:

India France

Language:

Hindi

Release Date:

24 June 2015 (France)

Also Known As:

Fly Away Solo

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$651,748

Company Credits

Production Co:

Drishyam Films, Macassar Productions, Phantom Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

109 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1