Jalsa svela le sue carte senza fretta, e ci mostra la complessità della realtà. Film doloroso, emozionante, costruito con pazienza e perizia. Una sceneggiatura meticolosa che non tralascia quasi nulla. La regia di prim'ordine regala alla pellicola peso e personalità, creando un luogo - un'inedita Mumbai miracolosamente deserta e silenziosa - e soprattutto un'atmosfera che catturano al punto tale da rendere insignificanti le (scarse) imperfezioni nella trama. Si può parlare di ritmo, per un film così? La narrazione va al di là. Fluisce naturale come la vita, arricchita dall'ingresso in scena di personaggi sempre nuovi che vorrebbero imprimere svolte perché forse costretti a compiere atti contrari alla loro natura, ma che, con le loro ombre e i loro dilemmi morali, ruotano costantemente su se stessi. Jalsa racconta una storia scomoda, un macro insieme di azioni cattive, persino crudeli. Il tenore è però morbido, mai giudicante. Jalsa non ci atterrisce, preferisce invece sussurrarci all'orecchio verità moleste che preferiremmo non ascoltare.
Le interpretazioni di Vidya Balan e di Shefali Shah sono acutamente interiorizzate, inappuntabili nel rendere giustizia a due straordinarie figure femminili scritte con un'accuratezza quasi letteraria. Così come paiono letterarie le interconnessioni fra i personaggi, letterario il canovaccio che insieme generano. Jalsa sembra la trasposizione di un romanzo, con l'inevitabile compressione nei tempi cinematografici di pagine e capitoli dal contenuto più ampio, senza però rinunce in termini di significato e profondità. I dialoghi sono eccellenti, caratterizzati da battute brevissime, efficaci, da conversazioni concise, monologhi stringati. Il montaggio è di una precisione abbagliante. Jalsa ammalia anche alla seconda visione, perché si apprezzano maggiormente il contributo dell'ottimo cast di supporto (tutta la mia ammirazione al regista per aver scritturato Surya Kasibhatla), le puntuali sottolineature del commento musicale, l'impegno profuso dal direttore della fotografia nel definire e qualificare gli ambienti.
TRAMA
Maya è l'integerrima conduttrice di un famoso programma giornalistico d'inchiesta. Ruksana è la sua cuoca. Le due donne sono legate dall'affetto che entrambe provano per Ayush, l'unico figlio di Maya. Una tragica notte, Alia, la primogenita di Ruksana, viene investita, e l'automobilista fugge via senza prestarle soccorso.
RECENSIONI
Mid-Day: *** 1/2
'The relatively large cast of characters, with adequate back-stories, are so inspiringly inter-related or hyperlinked, that each one just manages to matter much to the movie, and therefore to each other. (...) What you also repeatedly observe in the foreground is a series of shots to do with multiple screens - CCTV, tablet, cellphone, home-door security cam, gaming on TV, news monitor, etc. What’s the film trying to say? That the screen entirely envelopes our lives anyway. (...) As a screenplay (...), this multi-culti movie, based on a massive coincidence, is what you’d call a ‘moral drama’. A genre that (...) in India, certain Malayalam movies get so right. (...) Guilt and redemption are at the core of this picture'.
Mayank Shekhar, 19.03.22
Film Companion:
'Jalsa stays rooted in the trials and tribulations of civic structure. On its surface, it's designed as a tense anti-procedural. You root for truth and justice, only to realize that it's never as clean-cut as that. The beauty of the film lies in its shedding of the binary. A city like Mumbai doesn't allow for an arc of unfiltered idealism or opportunism. There is no strong and weak, good and bad; every person exists somewhere in between. The fringe characters - an intrepid young reporter, two cops trying to quash the case, a company driver, a mechanic - are torn between morality and survival. The reporter, especially, starts out as a potential hero, but slowly seeps into the big-city walls. In most other films, she would have been the game changer. But Jalsa do not pretend to treat its people as isolated movie characters; each of them is a cumulative consequence of hope, need and desperation. (...) The performances go a long way in shaping the pressure-cooker tone of the film. They allow the story to convert its loopholes into loops of internalized strife. (...) [Vidya] Balan plays Maya with a mix of instinct and understanding. (...) Balan's depiction of emotional continuity - where one moment is never detached from the next, where her soul is rotting with every decision - is exemplary in this film'.
Rahul Desai, 18.03.22
Cinema Hindi: ****
Punto di forza: regia, sceneggiatura, Vidya Balan e Shefali Shah.
Punto debole: Vidhatri Bandi non mi ha convinta.
SCHEDA DEL FILM
Cast:
* Vidya Balan - Maya, giornalista
* Shefali Shah - Ruksana, cuoca di Maya
* Surya Kasibhatla - Ayush, figlio di Maya
* Rohini Hattangadi - madre di Maya
* Vidhatri Bandi - stagista
Regia: Suresh Triveni
Soggetto e sceneggiatura: Prajwal Chandrashekar, Suresh Triveni
Dialoghi: Hussain Dalal, Abbas Dalal, Prajwal Chandrashekar, Suresh Triveni
Colonna sonora: Gaurav Chatterji
Fotografia: Saurabh Goswami
Montaggio: Shiv Kumar Panicker
Traduzione del titolo: Rahul Desai propone celebratory gathering
Anno: 2022
RASSEGNA STAMPA
* How Jalsa casting director selected Surya Kasibhatla to play the child with cerebral palsy, Prathyush Parasuraman, Film Companion, 26 marzo 2022: 'Anmol Ahuja casts with an eye for detailing and a heart for inclusion. (...) He believes in a more professional, more responsible casting process. "Casting as a department is not very old. Excel Entertainment, Anurag Kashyap, and Vishal Bhardwaj actually brought this whole concept of casting. So when there is a specialized job, it must be done in a more professional manner." For Jalsa, he and his team scouted for a child with cerebral palsy to play the role of Ayush. (...) They found Surya Kasibhatla, who was not only confident and fit the bill, but to Ahuja's joy "even had a similar profile to that of Vidya Balan". (...) When Kasibhatla was 4-years old, he had told his parents he wanted to be an actor. It took a few years and a few videos before his paths crossed with that of Anmol Ahuja. (...)
What was your initial brief for casting the character of Ayush?
Inclusivity is something I am a firm believer of. When we read the script, we knew casting someone for Ayush won't be easy. So we thought why not look for a child who has this condition, (...) but we work with the child and see if we can get the right performance out. (...) We found some in Doha, South Africa, a few in Mumbai also. Before auditioning them we would do a workshop where they become familiar with the process. We made it seem like we are playing a game, so there isn't heartbreak if they don't get selected. Parallely, we were also looking at kids who are doing theater, without the condition, as a back-up plan. We were auditioning both sets of kids. (...)
How did you come across Surya Kasibhatla? (...)
He is a Hyderabad-born child, son of two techie parents. When he was 9-10 years old, they shifted to Texas. He has his own website and everything. He is into software development at the age of thirteen! If you remember the first scene of Jalsa, Ayush is making a video on how to bowl. Surya had done a similar video, which is there on YouTube, giving tips on how to play cricket. The moment we saw that video, we knew we had to get him. We auditioned him and sent the video to Suresh [Triveni] sir who also agreed after doing a video call with him. But he also wanted to see how close Surya is to the character of Ayush. So we gave Surya little exercises - for example, what his dreams are, etc. - and he would send us these videos. When Surya came to Mumbai we started off with film-based workshops conducted by (...) Suresh sir. Suresh sir also has a family member with this condition, so he knows how to handle such kids. He also rewrote the character as per Surya's personality.
Rewrote in what ways?
For example, initially there were long dialogues. While we were auditioning we realized that a kid with this syndrome cannot speak this much. So how to say the same thing with fewer words was something he thought of. It took us close to about 2.5 to 2 months to cast this character. (...)
How many people did you audition?
About 150 kids without the condition, and 40-45 kids with the condition. (...) But from the starting, it was clear that we must try and find a kid with cerebral palsy.
What were these workshops like? (...)
For example, we used to get 10 kids in a batch, and for 2-3 hours everyone would introduce themselves, and the next person would have to fold the previous person's name into their introduction. This whole idea of competition generally comes into play, which we were trying to avoid. For us, at the end of the day, we can only cast one kid. But no child must feel less important. They must enjoy the whole process, learn something new'.
CURIOSITÀ
* Rohini Hattangadi ha interpretato la moglie di Gandhi nel celebre film di Richard Attenborough, aggiudicandosi il BAFTA Award per la migliore attrice non protagonista. Ad oggi, è l'unica attrice indiana ad aver conquistato tale premio. Anche Shefali Shah ha interpretato il ruolo della moglie di Gandhi, nella pellicola Gandhi my father.
* Riferimenti al cinema indiano: Alia Bhatt, Ranbir Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor, Neetu Singh.
* Riferimenti all'Italia: menzionata la mozzarella.
GOSSIP & VELENI
* Shefali Shah è la moglie di Vipul Shah, e possiede il ristorante Jalsa di Ahmedabad.
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