Film: BA Pass
Director: Ajay Bahl
On a Friday with nearly a
dozen so-called star-less films releasing, Ajay Bahl’s BA Pass,
starring Shilpa Shukla (our beloved Bindya Naik from Chak De!
India) perhaps has the most familiar face. Based on Mohan Sikka’s
The Railway Aunty, the film takes us on a journey of a young
boy into a dark world that he is unfamiliar to.
Following William Blake’s
pattern from Songs of Innocence and of Experience, the film
opens with a recently orphaned FY BA student, Mukesh, who finds
himself at the mercy of his reluctant aunt, with two younger sisters
to take care of. While running household errands after attending
college, and playing chess at a graveyard with a coffinmaker, a dodgy
employment opportunity knocks on his doors. A lonely housewife,
Sarika, seduces him and thrusts him into prostitution. One thing
leads to another, and slowly, Mukesh’s life begins to collapse and
all he can do is watch helplessly.
While the first half of
the film lingers on how Mukesh loses his innocence, the second half
is an ode of how he experiences life in the vividly dark shades of
deceit, doubt and misfortune. What make the entire journey engaging
are the raw visuals used in taking the story forward. However, after
an intense show, the film’s graph radically falls in the final act,
delivering an insufficient ending.
The most disconcerting
imagery of an innocent boy entering a world of wrong, is done in the
most honest and brutal way possible and (permissible by the censor
board). But, even though the censor regulations enforce a certain
limitation on what can be shown, the film manages to dodge the barbs
and maintaining the required darkness. And although Shilpa Shukla is
unnaturally overdressed in most love-making scenes; it still conveys
the necessary message unlike Saif Ali Khan in Race, who makes
love to Bipasha Basu with his pants on.
If the story doesn’t
appeal to you, if noir films aren’t your cup of tea, you can still
watch this film solely for Shilpa Shukla’s powerful performance.
However, after Bindiya Naik in Chak! De India and Rajuben in
Anurag Kashyap’s TV series Rajuben, it would be a treat to
see her play a character of a different shade. Shadab Kamal, who
plays Mukesh, has put a great effort in displaying the transformation
of how a boy, under hostile circumstances, becomes a man.
Set in Delhi, the film is
shot mostly interiors, but the exteriors fail to explore the dubious,
shadowy, neon-lit back alleys which we are familiar with, thanks to
Dev D. That apart, BA Pass is a good attempt at an
erotic, noir drama and does enough to touch you. Had it been produced
in a country with a more lenient censor board, it could have been
much more.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Published in DNA (Pune)
on August 3, 2013
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