PHOTOGRAPH

India, 2019, 110 minutes, Colour.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Sanya Malhotra.
Directed by Ritesh Batra.

Ritesh Batra made a popular romantic story about mistaken identities, The Lunchbox. It was an Indian story, especially with orders for lunches going out, mixups in orders, the consequences for the woman sending out for lunch and the man receiving it. This film, Photograph is basically the same story in another guise.

In the meantime, the director had made the film version of Julian Barnes novel, The Sense of an Ending, in the UK and a romantic film in the US, two of the little only people comforting each other, Our Souls at Night, reuniting Robert Redford and Jane Fonda.

With Photograph, he is back in India, is in Mumbai. For overseas audiences, especially if they have visited Mumbai in the past, it is an opportunity to see the modern city, the blend of the old and the new, the new beginning to dominate. The scenes at the Gateway show tourists and photographers urging passers-by to capture the moment otherwise it will be gone.

The audience is introduced to two unlikely characters to be the focus of this. The first is a middle-aged photographer, trying to eke out a living with his friends, who has come from the country, wants to pay off his father’s debts, and is the main concern of his grandmother who really want him to get married (and threatens to stop taking her medication until he does). He is something of a morose man, living in a community of fellow workers, who talk, joke, trick, play cards – and talking about his not being married and his grandmother’s threats.

The other is a young student, from a wealthy family, seemed to shop with the family wanting to choose colours for her clothes, her past thoughts of being an actress but her studying to be a chartered accountant. At the Gateway, Rafi urges her for a photo. She agrees but, as he turns away, she is called and disappears.

And the audience is wondering how they will come again, whether she is the answer to Rafi’s dreams and his grandmother’s hopes, whether she will meet Rafi again.

Of course, they do.

The device is that Rafi sends Miloni’s photo to his grandmother who very quickly agrees to come to Mumbai to meet the young woman. Which puts Rafi into something of a panic, going around the city in a van search for the young woman, by chance seeing her in a poster advertising chartered accountant courses, following her, sitting next to her on a bus…

There are touches of wry comedy with the grandmother’s arrival, her summing up of the young woman, not wanting to at first, changing her mind, the two women bonding – even though Miloni has set up a completely false background story.

The film has a great deal of charm, although an impatient audience might want them to hurry up and resolve the situation. Otherwise, there is great pleasure in being in the company of Rafi and Miloni, the tensions for the young woman at home but good advice from the family servant about life in the country, Rafi and dealing with his grandmother.

There is a pleasant twist to the plot when it emerges that Miloni does not drink Coca Cola, remembering the Cola of the past, Campa Cola, which has stopped production. However, there is a story about an older man who had a factory because his wife love to drink Campa Cola. Can this have an influence on bringing about the romance between Rafi and Miloni?

The couple have been to see a film and she has been startled by rats scurrying across the floor of the cinema! However, they go again. She walks out and the couple sit on a park bench, he telling her about how the film will end up, about them getting to know each other, falling in love, a future together so that they did not have to see the rest of the film. And, of course, that is where Photograph ends as well!

1. An Indian story? Popular with the director – two unlikely people, a mistake in the coming together?

2. The city of Mumbai, the Gateway, the tourist world, the railway stations, buses, cafes, shops with material, the factory, the feel of India, the feel of by? The musical score?

3. The title, Rafi and his friends, the advertising for photographs, memories of a lifetime, otherwise gone? Moderate success? The need for money? Rafi and his grandmother, her concern about his marrying or not? Not taking her medicine? Rafi paying off the family debt? His companionship with his friends, talking, cards, drinking? Yet his morose personality as well?

4. Miloni, with her family, the shop, the colours of the materials sitting her? Stopping for the photo? The talk with Rafi, called away, going home? Her family and the sequences with meals, the servant in the house, Miloni and her studying, also morose, classes, the poster with her photo, passing the photo are rounding class, the professor’s response?

5. Rafi, his idea, writing the letter to his grandmother, including the photo, his search for her, seeing the poster, following her, the encounter in the bus, sitting together, talking, his proposal, her agreement, going to the station to meet the grandmother, the grandmother’s first reaction? The false name?

6. Miloni, sitting next to Rafi on the bus, her agreement, pondering the situation, asking for more photos, the consequences of the agreement, talking, learning more, the family story? Her creating a full story, the story about drinking Campa Cola, the materials for dresses, the bonding with the grandmother? Bonding with Rafi, the scenes at home, seeking the advice of the Serpent, life in the village? Her studies, past acting, chartered accountant?

7. The grandmother, strong personality, opinions, the past, bringing up the children, her hopes, coming to the city, her comments on Miloni?

8. The teacher, class, in the streets, Rafi thinking he was molesting Miloni?

9. His growing awareness, the reactions of the family, her not being considered pretty, her father and her father and his criticisms? Continuing with Rafi, going to the cinema, the rat on her feet? The second cinema outing, moving out, sitting in the vestibule?

10. Rafi, his work, the plan for his own company, the story about the Cola, the widow and his wife, getting information, going to the factory, the man making him a bottle of Cola?

11. The movie, leaving the cinema, the conversation, Rafi saying everybody knows the story – and everybody knowing this story and so the narrative stopping and the credits rolling?