June 7 2020

Nasir..

Dear AK,

I watched your movie and I wanted to write this to you rather than just telling you how beautiful and soulful it is.

These are few things which made sense to me, which resonated with me, I noted down as I watched the movie, I took a moment and wrote this before continuing. I felt, those scenes or images needed a minute or two to chew on to get the depth of it and sometimes just to relive it the very moment. Some scenes, I did replay a few times. I liked doing that with your Nasir.

I liked the square frame, the curved edges, felt like watching it in a TV from my childhood. 

This man reminds me of you for some reason though I havent met you or heard you talk, but as soon as the movie started it felt like it was you, particularly when he grabs his wife and kiss her, also whenever he sits down with his beedi and smoking, where he is lost in his own thoughts.

Bathing scene was interesting, just the legs. I was wondering why he used his legs to wash them and not his hands may be men bath like that?

He goes through the beautiful pink flower curtains after he pins her scarf.

The chair, the plate he eats food in, the bedsheet where Iqbal sleeps on - I know these and have used these, strange to see them on screen.

Liked the color tone especially in intimate places which had no dialogues and the picture speaks more, Iqbal's introduction scene, bathing scene, overall sepia in the early morning, his walk back to his home at the end of the day, his beedi fire just shining through the night as he walks, the pink sky in the evening, the school area, college kid's place all of them had different tones and it was like art. But the colors in the house during day time, the shop interiors and the street were more real than being something it's not which blended in with the former.

Loved the poem he recites. For me particularly today, well on most nights, that's how I feel too. Reminded me of this song - longing, lonliness, loss and love from Gustavo (https://youtu.be/gbjHjAVWm9o).

Seeing Coimbatore, the roads, the buses, the slang in which everyone speak, I kept telling myself I know this and I have been here. It was just wonderful to know that I know what you have shown throughout your movie.

And for someone who writes to her beloved when ever they are not together and the one who has left town is not in a position to hear what you want to say, writing a letter was the most sensible thing to do.

- T