The Alchemy in Three of Us...

 

Picture Courtesy: FC

The genre of film has become inseparable from the life of an ordinary human being. The world of films endows one with a world of varied shades in shards. Some flicks don’t leave us even after we leave the platforms of celluloid miracles. Some haunt us, some grip us, some move us, some exemplify us, and some make us ponder over the leitmotifs for long. It does not matter whether the film has hit the box office or whether it has been nominated for awards, but the quality and the timelessness of the theme do matter!

I came across one such movie quite recently on the platform of Netflix. My husband felt it was a must-watch one for me. Without hesitation, I embarked on the cinematic journey of Three of Us carving out a moment of respite from the mundane chaos of everyday life.

“Memory is the diary we all carry about with us”, says the renowned writer, Oscar Wilde.  What happens if our memory betrays us? What happens if daily routine becomes vague and usual happenings pass out of mind? We tend to take a break from the lunacies and absurdities of mundane life. Avinash Arun takes us on one such journey through the narrow crossroads and by lanes of childhood memories.

The movie Three of Us screened at the recent IFFI unravels the labyrinth of human emotions blurring in the shards of memories. Shailaja Patankar played flawlessly by Shefali Shah takes us to the world of a woman diagnosed with dementia and the way she tries hard to fit into the daily rhythms.

Shailaja is in the initial phase of early onset dementia. She comes out of the fettters of her job in the family court and sets her mind free to roam around in her childhood fantasies. Her husband Dipankar, an insurance agent, joins her to fulfill her cherished desire to gather her repertoire of childhood images. When memories begin withering, when the humdrum of daily life despises you for your inability to remember things, it’s better to try once to feel some solace to overcome this catastrophe.

Shailaja’s journey to the village of Vengurla along with her husband turns out to be the real journey to find her origin (Udgam). The village brings her to life, comfy with the shades of humans and the surroundings. She revisits her eighth standard classroom with her friends whom she meets after twenty-eight long years. The mogambo and daga of childhood come afresh in her memories. The bonding and childhood friendship make us feel that they are still close no matter how different and distant they are geographically.

Picture Courtesy: The Hindu

Shailaja comes across her childhood incomplete love, Pradeep Kamat who is a bank manager by now. He becomes a companion to the ‘wonderful, strange’ plans of Shailaja and Dipankar. Pradeep’s wife Sarika also supports him in fulfilling the wish of his childhood friend who has inspired him scribble a poem after eons, about origins – Udgam. Shailaja is in search of her origin and trying to fix the withered pages of her life in the village that slowly unfurls the dark stories of her family and sister.

It’s commendable how the wife and husband pairs of the film support each other. Seeing the happiness and attachment of Shailaja with her childhood land and Pradeep, Dipankar asks her, “Were you this happy with me? She retorts “When we were sad last time?” The chemistry and the relationship they nurture make one sense of the companionship and the possibility of bestowing a new ending to her life.

To read my full article, check https://www.boloji.com/articles/54456/three-of-us-in-all-of-us

A movie worth watching to find a room of one’s own always and in all ways!