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TIFF 2015 Review: Angry Indian Goddesses
Pan Nalin's Angry Indian Goddesses is more than "India's first female buddy comedy."
A couple years ago, director Pan Nalin came to TIFF with Faith Connections, a documentary weaving together the disparate stories of several people drawn to the Kumbh Mela, an annual Hindu pilgrimage that, at 100 million strong, holds the distinction of being the largest religious gathering in the world. It was the kind of ambitious, thought-provoking exploration we’d come to expect from a filmmaker who first made waves with the story of a Buddhist monk’s sexual awakening in 2001’s Samsara.
With that in mind, he’s not the most likely candidate to helm a movie that’s being billed as India’s first-ever female buddy comedy. But wouldn’t you know it, he showed up at this year’s festival with Angry Indian Goddesses.
The Goddesses head out for a night on the town.
Photo Credit: TIFF
The film opens on a house in Goa, where photographer Frieda (Sarah Jane Dias) has invited her old college friends out to the beach, seemingly for a girls’ getaway. Once they arrive, however, she drops a bombshell: she’s getting married. To whom exactly, is a secret — and it’s not the only one that will be dredged up over the next couple of days, as these seven women bond, fight, drink, dance, oogle the sexy neighbour and vent about the state of their lives and their society.
It's difficult to go much more in-depth on the plot because, really, that’s about all the plot there is. Nalin essentially throws together a diverse cross-section of modern Indian women and then stands back and watches as they bounce off each other. In addition to Frieda, we have rabble-rousing political activist Nargis (Tannishtha Chatterjee); ruthless CEO/overbearing mother Su (Sandhya Mridul); down-on-her-luck musician Mad (Anushka Manchanda); conservative housewife Pammy (Pavleen Gujral); Frieda’s free-spirited British cousin Jo (Amrit Maghera), who dreams of Bollywood stardom; and Lakshmi (Rajshri Deshpande), Frieda’s fiery young servant and longtime confidante.
Chemistry is a key component to any buddy comedy, and these actors certainly have it — gelling and jiving with one another in delightful, disarming fashion. But then, calling this film a “buddy comedy” is underselling things. Indeed, Goddesses is being touted as Nalin’s first “mainstream” effort, but the director hasn’t exactly left his indie sensibilities behind.
Singer-songwriter Mad (Anushka Manchanda) searches for inspiration.
Photo Credit: TIFF
For one, the whole thing is heavily improvised. Nalin has a writing credit on the film, but it doesn't seem as though much of anything was written down. When I chatted with him at TIFF, the director expressed that he wanted his actors to be utterly in the moment, and thus would withhold plot and character details to the point where Dias and co. were often reacting genuinely, as themselves, instead of as their characters.
Tannishtha Chatterjee, sitting beside him, recalled her first day of work on the film, after arriving later in the shoot than her co-stars; she flew into Goa, was shuttled straight to the set and thrown in front of the camera. With the exception of one other actor, none of her cast mates knew she was in town yet, let alone that she’d be walking into the middle of their scene.
In many ways, this is the core of the film’s appeal, but at times it also undermines it. There’s a rawness, a realness to the moments of joy, sorrow and connection that these women share which couldn’t necessarily have been achieved if they were making a conventionally scripted affair (a breathtaking, dialogue-free apology that plays out between Frieda and Lakshmi springs to mind).
That said, the off-the-cuff filmmaking does result in some moments that fall flat, some tangents that peter out unremarkably, and an overall choppiness of flow. Not having a map can lead to unexpected paths, but not all of them are worth following. Nonetheless, the charisma and the infectious spark shared by the cast is enough to carry the film through the bumps.
Frieda (Sarah Jane Dias) seeks comfort in the arms of Nargis (Tannishtha Chatterjee).
Photo Credit: TIFF
But what truly distinguishes Goddesses from your typical crowd-pleaser is that, as breezy and pleasant as the tone is, there’s an undeniable social agenda amidst all the hijinks and soapy personal drama, as these old friends commiserate and clash over topics like sexual harassment, gender roles, gay rights and institutional corruption.
Beneath the film’s frothy veneer is an undeniably dark portrait of Indian society, a manifesto for empowerment. But it doesn’t stay below the surface for long. A third-act development takes this adventure in a truly unexpected direction — recontextualizing all the laughs, debates, spa days and impromptu dance parties we’ve seen up to this point with what can be described as a cinematic punch to the gut. We thought we were watching one kind of movie, and all of a sudden, the curtain is pulled back and we realize that, loose and meandering as the journey may have seemed up to this point, Nalin has been subtly, expertly guiding us to one unavoidable destination. It’s one of those rare moments that almost singlehandedly elevates a film from pleasant trifle to unforgettable cinema.
Main Image Photo Credit: TIFF
Matthew Currie
Author
A long-standing entertainment journalist, Currie is a graduate of the Professional Writing program at Toronto’s York University. He has spent the past number of years working as a freelancer for ANOKHI and for diverse publications such as Sharp, TV Week, CAA’s Westworld and BC Business. Currie ...
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