Sairat – movie review

After a fiery and gut-wrenching fandry which won many awards including the prestigious National award, Nagraj Popatrao Manjule is back with his most awaited flick of the year – Sairat –  an epic love story of Archie (Archana Patil) and Parshya (Prashant Kale) set in a hamlet called Bittergaon of rural Maharashtra where remnants of “cesspool of cruelty, caste, prejudice & communalism” occasionally rear its ugly head. 

Parshya belongs to a poor family – placed in the so-called lower strata of the Indian village society – which makes a living out of fishing. Parshya is a confident guy good in studies, sports and likes to read and write poems. Whereas Archie is born in “upper” caste family who likes to swim and ride Royal Enfield. Being an only daughter of a powerful politician of the village she has “that” characteristic arrogant tone but at the same time, she is genial, empathetic, kind-hearted, often makes bold moves and harmlessly threatens to teach a “lesson” in English for those who do not understand it in Marathi.

Parshya has a “special” feeling towards Archie which he with the help of his friends Balya (Pradeep) and Salya (Salim) conveys to her through a cute “chota-messenger” to which she reciprocates with equal or more intensity. The melodious music add to their romance and make it larger than their life. They start often seeing, calling each other and make fearless moves. One of such daring move land them into trouble and those reprehensible “remnants” get the opportunity to rear its horrible head.

Archie’s father is a big landlord with acres of sugarcane planted on it made his family a prosperous one followed by the rise of his political power. The iron hand of the Archie’s father fans those “remnants” which becomes deadly for the couple. To escape the wrath of that iron hand they elope.

You might be wondering what is so special about this movie and say we have watched many movies with this kind of plot. From Laila-Majanu, Heer-Ranjha, Qayamat-se-Qayamat–tak to latest Ishaqzade has same plot in which couple loves against all odds, face the societal wrath, they try to fight but unfortunately succumbs. My take on that argument is love is a universal and timeless emotion. It has been here from the time immemorial. From the early dawn of human civilization to the present and you must agree it will remain intact in future also. What has changed from the time immemorial to the present is not love but society’s response towards it which makes each love story a unique one.

And what makes Sairat a unique love story is that it has been set in a contemporary Indian rural society and of course the man behind this epic love story – Nagraj Popatrao Manjule -who as a true showman has successfully shown the innocent love at its best never seen in any indian cinema till date and hypocrisies of sections of the Indian society which on public podium advocates the need of strong women and their empowerment but in reality they never walk the talk. Leave aside womens empowerment, patriarchs try to harm their own flesh and blood if they go against their patriarchal wishes to maintain their so called honour.

Will Parshya and Archie battle out all the odds? OR will they succumb to the might of father’s iron hand? OR will their love stand the test of time?, as some of us think caste is not a major player nowadays, so will the family accepts them with the passage of time?

Characters and music are the soul of this film. People complaing about the length of the movie forgetting one thing that Nagraj has painstakingly set all the required things in order to convey the core message of the movie. I am sure the melancholic silence at the end of the film will makes you forget about the length of the movie and to ponder over the society we live in.

Verdict – 4.5/5 –Sairat definitely going to haunt you for sometime.