Which Colour? (Shahrukhkhan Chavada, 2023)

I really liked this film as well, and also chose to seek it out after reading Srikanth Srinivasan's review—thanks for highlighting it! I'm mostly in agreement with Michael that not everything is successful, but there's enough grace, beauty, and mystery to really lift it to a memorable place. Also, the last few minutes are so superb, as Ruba passes through those static tableaux with dormant rickshaws in each frame. There is something close to Kiarostami in the seamless, effortless blend of the politically expressive and quietly quotidian that is movingly achieved in these minutes. Probably my favorite ending of a 2023 film so far. Very much looking forward to Chavada's next.

Dropping this excellent article (by a Muslim member of the parliament) here, in case anyone watching the film needs more context for its ending: https://www.ndtv.com/opinion/my-attacking-notes-ban-is-not-communal-1637847 "The money coming to ATMs is very little (throughout our country) and it is a pittance in areas where vulnerable sections - for example, Muslims - live. They are already financially excluded, they don't have banks in Muslim areas, and so, for them, life has become very tough with the notes ban causing a huge economic and social impact on their daily lives."

I agree! And because the film takes their everyday lives as Muslims to be a given, it's also able to dwell on the all-encompassing role of the patriarchy within the community, the perverse effect of traditional gender roles which means that the daughter, who is a "house wife," has greater social mobility since she can marry outside the ghetto, while the son is stuck despite being the "breadwinner." (A telling moment is when the mother flinches at her daughter's suggestion that she should come stay with her, in the posh neighbourhood with good roads.) It's the one thing the film is perhaps most interested in exploring.

Thanks so much for responding, and adding much needed additional context. You're absolutely right about the mother and daughter, characters I didn't address in my review. It was interesting not only because it added the background of the Gujarat riots, but also because it introduced inter-class tension within the family itself. She may be right that her brother is making a bad investment, but it's also pretty easy for her to judge from her present position. There's a lot of complicated things going on in the film, and like I say, I am not 100% convinced that Chavada pulls it all off. But what a debut!

Michael Sicinski

I'm really glad you saw and wrote about this film, Michael! You're right that the family's troubles are primarily economic. And this universalism is what makes the film for me so powerful and groundbreaking. I have rarely seen Muslims in Indian cinema (and certainly not in the Modi era) who aren't receptacles of religious discrimination and murderous violence (when they aren't simply the source of these), as though these are the only experiences open to them. Muslims in Indian cinema, whether progressive or reactionary, are always marked-out, never given the chance to stand in for universal experiences the way non-Muslim characters are. (My <i>Pather Panchali</i> comparison was oblique but this film reminds me above all of Burnett's Killer of Sheep.) (Spoilers below) <i>Nasir</i> is indeed a good reference point. What turns me off about that film is just this inscription of a Muslim's life within the framework of a religious riot. The protagonist Nasir's life finds meaning and completion solely because he is murdered by Hindu fanatics. The fundamental difference is of course in the filmmakers' social positions: Chavada is an insider while Arun Karthick isn't. That said, there are aspects of <i>Which Colour?</i> which suggest the intersection between the family's money woes and their social identity. In the conversation between mother and daughter, it is hinted that the family was displaced during the 2002 Gujarat riots, falling down the class ladder without ever recovering. The daughter escapes the ghetto thanks to her enterprising husband, but her brother (following their father) was never ambitious or confident enough to find opportunities outside of it. Moreover, the demonetization of 2016 (which voided 90% of the nation's bank notes overnight) itself had uneven social consequences. It's the smallest businesses of the kind we see in the film, which run on cash, that suffered the hardest. It's ridiculous it's taken this long to show the lives of Indian Muslims as they are, and not as far-right or liberal projections.