Shoebox movie review: In Faraz Ali's debut feature, Prayagraj plays both hero and villain

Faraz Ali makes a stunning debut with his first feature - Shoebox, a film about gentrification, loss and change. Amrita Bagchi plays Mampu in Shoebox, a protagonist forced to take on the system as her father’s decades-old single-screen theatre - Palace is identified as the ideal location for a shopping mall by builders backed by the encroachment mafia. Originally in Allahabad to monitor her father’s health (Madhav Chatterjee), Mampu realises her father’s deteriorating health has found a worthy opponent in his rock-solid resolve to keep his theatre alive as she hopelessly tries to get him to move away from the city. Mampu - clearly a nineties child has no new memories through which she can relate to the city. She tries connecting with the younger generation in her family with what would provide her with comfort back in her day - WWF cards of players now irrelevant and old. As the film progresses, Mampu and her father also show a visible change in their power dynamic, with Mampu no longer flinching with fear at her father. Set during the transition period of Allahabad becoming Prayagraj, Ali makes a strong comment on how the change in government over the past eight years has impacted the city in which he was born. A television debate within the film features a young college professor arguing for roads, development and a change in name to keep up with the times. Ali is self-aware through the film, acknowledging his romanticism of the old city is shared by a small minority of people.

Mahesh Aney’s camera scans through the effect of capitalism on Allahabad over the past decade, capturing pockets of the city stuck in time and stained by new money often in the same frame. Old mansions in muted pastels lie withering next to American brands with bright shades of red. Pizza joints with Mexican names and flyovers drenched in a tacky shade of blue with cartoonish murals of animals look disjoint and out of place, almost forcing their entry into the fabric of the city. A running gag of a larger than life Amitabh Bacchan standing proudly on a building facade slowly gets wiped out, letting us know this film has no place for nostalgia. Flashbacks of Mard playing in the theatre take us back to when a Bachchan release was an event in the city, relevant for months, even years as a place of comfort for cinema enthusiasts. Ali weaves the story between incidents from Mampu’s childhood that have made her the person she is - the death of her mother, her bond with a best friend as they skive off school to watch movies and her strict father - no stranger to using a cane to battle her rebelliousness. In present time Allahabad though, she now faces the classic choice of whether she must stay on and fight for what is rightfully hers to claim, or leave.

While Shoebox plays like a slow burn, jolts of violence dot the film strategically, often amplified because of its slow pace.

Ali, Aney (camera)  and Jabeen Merchant (editor) take their time to paint the city almost like a ticking time bomb - where the transformation of the fabric of the city is inevitable. Ali has previously made great use of MacGuffins (an object that drives the plot ahead) in his films. His short Makhmal used a piece of velvet that seals a bond between a father and his daughter. His first film - Mehrooni used a woollen sweater as a metaphor for grief and loss. Unlike his previous work, however, Shoebox leaves the viewer with morbid helplessness, about the idea of what was once home. Ultimately the box is a reminder to Mampu of simpler times. With Shoebox, Ali presents himself as a director with strong control over the craft of filmmaking and a distinct vision of the city he has grown up in. He stays away from rose-tinted glasses and the end result provides the viewer no closure. It’s dreary but refreshing. Shoebox played recently at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles. Sumedh Natu is a producer, director, and comic, who currently makes the Netflix India YouTube Show Menu Please. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News ,  India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook ,  Twitter  and  Instagram .