My Melbourne, Review: Ticking the diversity box

Taking the cue from the last segment, which centres around cricket, this is a boundary film, a four in one compendium, or anthology. It premièred last August, in Australia, and has been released yesterday, 14^th March 2025, in India. Of the four protagonists, two are Indian and one Afghan. There is only one Australian in the lead cast. Again, three of the four are women and the fourth is a homosexual. Since it is shot in Melbourne, the issue of race and immigration was a natural choice for the producers, so that accounts for the three Indian segments. For the fourth, they have chosen a young Australian woman with disabilities. Coping with handicaps and discrimination are the lifeblood of this watchable movie, which tackles LGBTQIA+, gender disability and race. And, for the record, the film has been inspired by true events.

It can be debated whether placing the LGBTQIA+ segment, titled Nandini, right at the beginning, was a good choice, because, unless you have done some reading, you might feel that the film might move from Queer, to Lesbian, to bi-sexuality….But the three other segments address gender, disability and race. Addressing four such contentious issues in one film is a bold decision, and needed a very large team to put it all together. And that large team is for us to see as the credit titles scroll, on and on, both in the beginning and the end, thanking dozens, if not hundreds of persons who made the film possible.

In Nandini, the first segment, two directors, Indian Onir (Anirban Dhar: Director, Producer, Writer, gay) and William Duan (Chinese-Australian, queer), merge their sensibilities into a drama about an Indian queer, Indraneel, living in Melbourne with his Australian lover. It follows the emotional reunion with his estranged father. After years of separation, the two come together in Melbourne to perform the Asthi Visarjan (ash-scattering) ceremony for Indraneel's mother, who has recently passed away. It is suggested that the father began to hate Indraneel when he discovered that he was queer, while the mother was more considerate. The relationship between Indraneel and his Australian partner, Christopher, is delicately portrayed. That Chris is a male nurse adds to the dimensions of the story. However, in the end, it is an open and shut case, with no major turning point or twist, except a hinted reconciliation. It is not clear why this segment is titled Nandini. Perhaps that is the name Indraneel would like to give himself, given that he is the woman that Chris might have had. Moving at a really slow pace, the episode has nothing much to say, except hammering in the concept that being queer is much more acceptable in Australia than in India. There is nothing noteworthy about the script (Duan), performances (Arka Das, Mouli Ganguly and Jackson Gallagaher) and direction.

Again, the title for the second segment, Jules, is an odd choice, for it is more the story of Sakshi, and Indian woman, than Jules, an Australian, homeless tramp. It has three directors, one regular the other creative, and the third a co-director: brothers Arif Ali (Lekar Hum Deewana Dil) and Imtiaz Ali (Jab We Met) and Zhao Tammy Yang. Tammy had this to say about her experience of co-directing Jules: The film My Melbourne was an absolute highlight of my filmmaking journey.

“Having the chance to learn from four incredible mentor directors—ONIR, Rima Das, Imtiaz Ali, and Kabir Khan—as well as producer Mitu Bhowmick Lange AM alongside so many talented HODs, really shaped my perspective and approach to film-making.”

Sakshi is used and abused by her husband merely on the basis of gender supremacy. This is as stereotypical She works in a restaurant, does dishes and graduates into a chef. One day, her Master Chef, Jake Ryan as Leon, impressed by her pakoras (Indian snack), which he finds delicious, takes a group selfie, with his arm around her, and posts it on the net. Her husband loses his temper and threatens to throw her out for getting permissive against Indian mores, and demands that she delete the photo immediately. In the meanwhile, she interacts with Jules, and, after being very wary of her abusive nature, gets to befriend her.

The two women, both dealing with feelings of displacement, form a bond, as they navigate their individual struggles with societal expectations and personal challenges. Jules is formulaic to a fault, for the easiest thing to write is the character of an abusive Indian husband who treats his wife like a door-mat in a foreign country, while making her work hard, to bring in the money. The interesting part is that the husband is never shown; we only hear his voice on a phone. And yes, we all stand-up for Sakshi as she takes a brave decision. Both, Arushi Sharma as Sakshi and Kat Stewart perform well, with Stewart having an edge over everybody. She looks and lives the part.

Even the third segment, titled Emma, has more than one director: Rima Das and co-director Samira Cox. This one is vague and meanders, playing with audio getting on and off, because the titular character, a dancer named Emma, suffers from Usher's Syndrome and needs an audio implant to hear. Moreover, she is also going blind, though this development is mentioned only in passing. Emma is a talented dancer in her early twenties, and excels in both ballet and contemporary dance. But she faces discrimination in the profession and is susceptible to depression, until she meets Nathan (Nathan Borg), a successful deaf dancer, whose self-acceptance inspires her to continue pursuing her dreams.

Acting out roles of dancers, and handicapped dancers at that, is no smooth sailing, yet the performers manage to get under the skin: Emma (Ryanna Skye Lawson), her mother, Susan (Mikhaela Ebony), and friends (Jordan Shome) and Nathan (Nathan Borg). The going gets esoteric at times and the dances might appeal to a limited audience. This must have been the most difficult segment to write and direct.

Many good things come in pairs, and so does the direction department of My Melbourne’s last segment, Setara. Directed by Kabir Khan and co-directed by Puneet Gulati, Setara, which means star, and is played by an actress named Setara Amiri, is the tale of an unlikely hero/heroine, a 15-year-old Afghan refugee, who relocates to Melbourne with her mother and sister, after fleeing the Taliban. The father, for some reason, stays behind. Her mother is a Supreme Court Judge, but cannot speak English. The older daughter is an engineering student dropout, but why she discontinues her studies remains unexplained. One day, while going to school, she passes the cricket ground where a player hits the ball in her direction. The way she catches it and throws it back so impresses the coach, played by Brad Hodge, that he wants her to enroll for the school’s cricket team immediately. As the family copes with the trauma of their past, Setara discovers a sense of belonging through cricket, which helps her rebuild her life in a new country. The film is based on Setara's own journey from Afghanistan to Melbourne as she plays herself in this film.

Puneet Gulati is quite a personality. A multi-talented individual, excelling in various roles as an actor, film-maker (writer/producer/director), recording artiste, host, and poet, hailing from Melbourne. His directorial debut, the short film ‘Café Choice,’ released in 2019, garnered recognition from esteemed film festivals and platforms worldwide. In My Melbourne, Puneet has the privilege of being mentored by the world-renowned filmmaker, Kabir Khan. You might recall that besides directing the blockbuster Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Kabir also made a film called Kabul Express (2005, debut), so his choice as the captain of the Setara cricket team was a given. There are laudable performances in this segment and some exciting twists, some foreseeable, some unpredictable, adding to the tight screenplay. Setara is about as organic as it gets, this being her real story. Sepideh Falleh as her mother, Latifa and Ella Wilson (hard to believe that this actress is Caucasian, and a real-life cricketer) as Aasiya do full justice to their roles.

Besides William Duan, mentioned above, the writers are Nazifa Amir, Shivangi Bhowmick, Samira Cox, Monique Nair and Arif Ali. Brad Francis’s lenses are put to effective use, as are his camera movements and angles. The My Melbourne title track is written and performed by Janaki Easwar, in English, and Parvyn Kaur Singh, in Punjabi, with music composed by Tamil Rogeon, and Yidaki played by Kiernan Ironfield. The title track for Setara is composed by Anurag Sharma, sung by Aryana Sayeed, an Afghan singer. Music, used in bits and pieces, adds to the texture of the film. Each segment is about 30 minutes long, with the scissors of Rima Das, Irene Dhar Malik and Mitesh Soni being gentle on the content.

Producer Mitu Bhowmick Lange, who also serves as the director of the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne, said: “It’s been almost ten years since an Australian film has released in India, so we are absolutely delighted that the film will be screening in more than 22 cities and 70 locations across the country.” My Melbourne was shown at various international film festivals, in India and abroad. It is often indulgent and languid, with no comic relief or lighter moments, not a film that mass audiences will find palatable, and will appeal to niche viewers. Nevertheless, challenging and spanning a wide range of inputs, the film definitely does yeoman’s service to the cause of Indie cinema by addressing the theme of gender, and ticking the diversity box.

Rating: ** ½

Trailer: https://youtu.be/zQhQEryxDQg