Mayar Jonjal

illusion which pushes us into a suffocating mess of debris, from which there is no escape. Mayar Jonjal explores such lives based on two short stories with great detailing, honesty and in a very documentary style. This style is so important because, you need to feel the rawness of the situations, human attachment and emotions and the constant struggle to lead a better life. It follows characters living in the urban underbelly of Kolkata who are pushed to the brink of survival every day. Even though their lives are bleak and they often hurt one another, they remain tightly bound together by love, greed, and obligation. All trapped under the burden of their own desires. I really like the camera work here, showcases cityscape in all-too real form, from tall buildings, dirt heaps, narrow lanes, to dark alleys. It shows the squalor and murk of the city in all its glory that perhaps keeps these lives somehow in a chokehold. Its a very interesting take on socio economic and political effects on ordinary lives, from being a Bangladeshi immigrant, to struggling for a small job from leading an independent life to having a dignified identity. It meshes all these different stories under the roof of the city, which slowly suffocates them and feels heavy on the heart and mind as everyday passes. The film has some few loose ends, but maybe that was the intent of the director, who wanted the audience to ponder about their lives in the aftermath.