Review: SIR

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Sir is a delightful small feature that premiered in 2018 at the Cannes Film Festival. It premiered here in India in Nov 2020 and on Netflix in January 2021. Watched it other day once it came on Netflix and I also had the chance to see the trailer about a month back. It had caught my attention then for the unusual storyline and of course for Tillotama Shome. Shome is brilliant and will be the one to hold your attention all throughout the on goings. She is about hustle at one moment and about the quiet moments she spends reminiscing on her and her life and her family. She seems unfazed by the only male (her employer) around in the house (Vivek Gomber in a sublime role). Directed by Rohena Gera (with a largely foreign crew) who surprisingly has very little body of work to boot, but her 2013 documentary What's Love Got to Do with It?  is funny and quirky. Sir will hold you for long in the quietness of the film and the subterfuge that Rohena injects time and again. It will make you sit up and take notice, especially when Ashwin (Vivek Gomber's character) starts developing feelings for his live-in maid Ratna (Tillotama Shome).

The storyline holds you and the narration is equally fluid, therefore. Music is minimal and Rohena draws a lot of ambient sound to create moments. The hustle of the city and the quietness in the household normalize each other quite often and it also highlights the two leads in those moments too. One is a widow at 19 years and other has just walked off his marriage (on account of infidelity) and are both trying to look for space to stay and hold on. Ashwin is looking for some somber around and Ratna is the perfect person to bring in that. There are several moments captured in their minimal conversations which is about a lot of it they are holding within but spill out little of it. And those "lot of it" are often about thinking and pontificating on. That lends the film gravitas and holds the audience. Sampler, in a moment in the film, Ashwin is standing in his terrace and looking out at the blankness in front of him. Ratna stands at the dining table and watches him for some time. After a minute or two he turns back and sees Ratna watching him. Ashwin asks Ratna, "Kya hua" (what happened) and she says, "Kuch nahi" (nothing) and walks back to the kitchen. As viewer you were expecting something but then the scene ends in a hope that something will build later. So, in a way all is not lost and yet there is hope. Also, one must know that Ratna is the maid and has her limits defined. There are many such interludes all throughout. By the way, her Ganesh Mahotsav dance was brilliant too. 

Like I said, Shome is brilliant and at the end when she comes back to Ashwin's house to a locked door and her going up the terrace and standing in with helplessness seeping in and the call from Ashwin coming in is all brilliant and is a lesson in acting. There are some other characters who lend support to these two. But, Sir is about the two leads only and how they come to terms with each other. I think, the practicality of Shome's character all throughout and especially when Ashwin develops a weak spot for her and her way to handle it is what makes the film so mesmerizing. You are always interested to know how it flows. Unlike the Lust Stories episode of Zoya Akhtar, it is not about the titillations and the lust but about respect, maturity and giving in to the relationship. Almost at the fag end of the film when Ashwin's father asks him, whether he is sleeping with his maid? He responds, no, but he loves her. That was a line in hurry but carried meaning. 

Sir, in all the mess coming out from Hindi cinema is a delight and must see. It will leave you with a "feel" and "happiness" about what relationships are all about and sometimes these do not have to have a past connect or a blood connect or a connect of any sort perhaps. It is the time and moment that I am in. And how, in process of mundane chores find those little hopes that one yearns, glimmers that shine and possibilities that one looks up to.

Sir premiered on Netflix in Jan 2021. Go watch!      

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