Banaras - A Mystic Love Story
Banaras – A Mystic Love Story
Banaras – A Mystic Love Story is hardly a love story. It truly engages deeper than the redundant boy meets girl, runs around trees, superficial, puppy love business.
This film is spiritually rich. Every step of the way there is a lesson taught and learned. It’s more about the growth and progression of individuals through a connection built on faith.
Director Pankuj Parashar really puts everything on stake to expose this concept. To average audiences the story will appear peculiar. No one walks in to a full feature Bollywood film to come out having listened to a sermon. So, if you are looking for entertainment, Banaras – A Mystic Love Story does a poor job. But if you are looking for a concoction of Geeta, Ramayana, & Buddhism, based philosophical stories, this is your answer.
Punkuj does a decent job with the narration. However the screenplay could use further depth and tighter knitting. Technically the film is astounding. With an astonishing visual presentation, the film leaps to the best of technical finesse in areas of cinematography and very effective background score. Although, editing could use improvement.
Ironically for a film that relies heavily on music for its theme, the man of the minute, music director Himmesh Reshammiya only provides an average track. Still, his rendition of “Om Namah Shivaya” is praiseworthy.
Also worthy of applaud is the performance of Raj Babbar. He excels to the max as Urmila’s goodhearted father. As for the other actors, Dimple Kapadia is functional. Naseerudhin Shah doesn’t quite reach out with his character as he should. Its almost as if he’s too well known of an actor to play the part with conviction. The same can be said for Urmila, who tries as she may, but just can’t sink into the character. When her character calls on her to be mature, she’s a misfit; and at times when she should be youthful, she looks older and tries too hard to be the bubbly schoolgirl. Ashmit Patel, proves to be an apt choice, doing average, at best.
Odd as it may be, Banaras – A Mystic Love Story offers something of value for rare audiences. Its receive’s Ritu’s invaluable 2 stars.
I’ll be honest; this was a tough film to get through even for me. Initially I thought it was slow and strange. But once you find the connection, it is possible to enjoy the little precious lessons learned.