Nasir (Arun Karthick, 2020)

SOME SPOILERS AHEAD.

It has to be addressed right off the bat. Nasir is a didactic film. It is made with a very particular purpose in mind, and by the time it is over, there is absolutely no ambiguity about what that purpose is. There is a particular strain of thinking that considers didacticism, in itself, to be the opposite of art, or at least art's nemesis. This is generally a liberal humanist position, one that prizes "ambiguity" over all else, partly because this ambiguity can be understood as the aesthetic version of the individual choice and unfettered market freedom that the liberal humanist believes he or she enjoys, and is entitled to.

But looked at another way, we can consider didacticism a social or ethical intervention by the artist as a concerned citizen. Making allowances for the value of this kind of art can, of course, present other sorts of problems for evaluation. There can be a tendency to ratify the didactic work based simply on the message it is trying to impart. This type of faux-criticism short circuits aesthetic judgment altogether, turning the movie theater into a kind of surrogate voting booth. 

When faced with a didactic work or art, our task is to evaluate its artistry as well as its effectiveness. A message is only as powerful as the substrate of its delivery. We must consider not just the punctuation, but the sentence itself.

Karthick's second film is both casually observational and deeply formalist. Shooting in Super-16 and maintaining a tight Academy ration, Nasir looks like it was shot on a Bolex, but each and every shot is organized for maximum compositional precision and clarity. Although it's obvious that Karthick is a student of both Bresson and Fassbinder -- as well as Indian "parallel cinema" legend Mani Kaul -- there is a casual mastery to his staging in depth, his use of interior frames, and his frequent tendency to organize a street scene or driving shot as though it were purely functional, only to gradually reveal some purposeful blocking or architectural arrangement. 

And what is it we are watching? Nasir is an uneventful couple of days in the life of the title character, a Muslim manager of a clothing store in a shopping district in Coimbatore, a city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. We watch Nasir (Koumarane Valavane) get up and get ready for work, and help his wife Tal (Sudha Ranganathan) get to the bus station for a three-day trip she must take, to help some relatives with a wedding in a neighboring town. In addition to just missing his wife and wishing she didn't have to go, Nasir is also a bit frazzled, because he is short-handed, having to both go to work and look after his developmentally disabled nephew Iqbal (Sabari). The neighbor who helps watch Iqbal does her best, but she is elderly and suffering from a severe stomach ailment.

We see Nasir in line to get water. We see him running errands. He see him go to the mosque, undertake wudu, and pray. We see him spending time with Iqbal, feeding him and looking at the drawings in his coloring book. But mostly we see him at his job. The clothing stall is a very busy place, where lots of choosy women come in asking to see dozens of saris in various colors and styles. Nasir is a patient manager, and we think he is the owner of the shop until we see him interact with the big boss, a guy who has been sitting in the corner, practically forgotten.

Not long after Nasir's arrival at work, the boss takes a phone call, before we even know who he is. He is talking about an upcoming protest in town where "we will show those Muslims" and "make them afraid." He laughs maniacally. It's disturbing when one thinks that a customer would feel empowered to behave this way in Nasir's store. It's even worse when we realize that this is the man Nasir must work for.

Karthick has us patiently follow Nasir through his busy day, including some slow, restful moments that result in what might be considered "slow cinema." But there is tension in the air, as we periodically hear loudspeakers from the city square, with protesters -- self-appointed guardians of "Mother India" -- braying about the need to kick out the "invading" Muslims and, essentially, Make India Hindu Again. It is never exactly clear whether this refrain counts as foreshadowing, or if this is simply the backdrop against which Nasir must conduct his daily existence.

As it happens, Nasir has been leading up to something. But even if you have been waiting for it, you will still not be prepared. Karthick's bold didactic strategy is to follow seventy minutes of cinematic humanism with five minutes of absolute, inexplicable nihilism, staged with the cruel efficiency of Michael Haneke. The point could not be clearer. This is the India of Narendra Modi.

ADDENDUM: Hey, guess what? I was informed by Maximilien Luc Proctor that Nasir was actually shot on a Digital Bolex. But he used Super-16 lenses. Hence the unique 16mm look. Thanks, Max!