Gaon--The Village No More, Review: Here yesterday, Gaon today

Imagine a village cut-off from the country and the world. Totally, completely, fully, comprehensively cut off. Imagine community farming, imagine a community kitchen. Also imagine guru-shishya parampara (teacher-disciple oral tradition) education, without any tools. And imagine herbal medicine as the only method of disease treatment. Can you imagine this scenario in 2017? No, you can’t. Writer-director Gautam Singh Sigdar can.

The film Gaon (Hindi word for village)—The Village No More, is inspired by the true story of Singh's own village in Jharkhand, India. "This film is the true story of my village in Jharkhand, India. Once in this remote and isolated community, villagers co-existed like members of a large extended family, where they maintained a unique way of life - mellow and harmonious, celebratory and united," Singh said in a statement.

What is it called? Bharat, after the Hindi name for India. A man whose ancestors hailed from this village dies in Mumbai. Normally, nobody either leaves Bharatgaon or comes to Bharatgaon. But the man mumbled in his dying moments that his remains should be scattered in a lake located in Bharat village. The dead man’s son, also named Bharat, a banker by profession, set out to find the place, and after being nearly mauled by a tiger, reached his destination. He was looked after by the Vaid (Ayurvedic doctor) and his daughter Sango. Ashes scattered, Bharat is fascinated by the life-style of the villagers, who still believe that the British rule the rest of India, although they left in 1947.

In a series of strange events, Bharat contests the Sigdar’s election, wherein the winner is decided by the maximum amount of liquor consumed. To his amazement, Bharat is elected the Sigdar (headman) of the village and he starts thinking about a solid future for his small population.

Being a banker, what could be his vision for the future of Bharatgaon? An agrarian economy, with a bank to provide the necessary loans. Bharat heads back home and meets his manager at the Indo Bank, who fires him for being away for over a month. But Bharat sells him the idea of opening a branch in Bharatgaon and making money on interest, recycling loans year after year. For their part, the villagers will grow bumper crops, with the help of fertilisers and tractors, sell them and repay the loans. Sounds highly utopian and idealistic, but turns out to be a recipé for dystopia. Soon, everybody has gone. The village is empty.

One will have to suspend disbelief to ridiculous lengths to accept the premise of the story that a village, albeit with a population not exceeding three figures, can remain so cut off, without any government presence whatsoever, in 2017. And yet, Singh maintains that his own village was almost entirely cut off when he was young, some 35 years ago, and very little money was around. Then, the government reached, and the system started changing, or, rather, a system was set in place. Since he was unable to capture the changes when they occurred, he fictionalised the tale and tapped into his resources as a documentary film-maker of 16 years, most of them spent in the Middle East (Doha), to recreate his village in Ramgarh, near Jamshedpur, close to the border with Odisha.

He is worried that the story of his village is no different from the story of every village in the world, and that we are heading for disaster in the name of homogeneity. Al Jazeera made a documentary out of the film’s footage, shot by its own in-house documentary-maker. The only way it works is as a fable and a grandma tale. But once Bharat is introduced, the fable goes under the table and when the bank comes in, the spell is comprehensively broken. There is no denying that there is merit in the concept, but it is the writer-director’s responsibility not to let it peter down to caricature. He uses copious doses of comedy to further the story, which, at times, detracts from the dark nature of the subject.

It’s tough enough making a subject like this, which took six years, but when you have no really known faces in the cast, the going becomes so much more uphill. That is not to suggest that the cast has not performed well. Gopal K. Singh (Company, Badlapur, Andhadhun) as Vaidji is the most accomplished of the lot, and it shows. Shadab Kamal as Bharat and Neha Mahajan as Sango make a comely pair, have some good lines and even act well. Rohit Pathak as Mangla exudes the requisite bravado, and Omkar Das Manikpuri as Shambhu looks so well cast. Shishir Sharma as the lollipop sucking and offering (“I insist”) Bank Manager is part caricature, as is the manager of the Bharatgaon branch, RaviKant Mishra. Also in the cast are Dibyendu Bhattacharya as Belu (lives the part) and Praveena Deshpande as Bharat’s mother (cameo).

Gaon tackles too many issues, all of them relevant, to be sure, but suffers from a lack of sharp focus. Once the bank sets in, it becomes a different film altogether. It is high on intentions but short on delivery.

Rating: ** ½

Trailer: https://youtu.be/nx9REwfs6QA