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Tuesday, March 25, 2025
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BOLLYWOOD CITY OF GOLD
EDITOR'S PICK
Rating: ***1/2
There is no room for artifice in Mahesh Manjrekar`s latest work. A raw, gritty
look at the world of the ravaged, "City Of Gold" is as powerful in
portraying a bereft working class as "Molly Maguires" was about Irish
mine workers... Except for the fact that there is no room for pretty visuals in
"City Of Gold".
Manjrekar`s chawl-life, captured on camera with merciless frankness by Ajit
Reddy, is a bleak world of dreamers and losers who are often the one and the
same. His heroes (if we may call the young characters that) are offered no hope
of solace or redemption. This is the side of the slum that Danny Boyle missed
when he made "Slumdog Millionaire".
"City Of Gold" is neither stylish nor swanky enough to attract elitist
readings of poverty. Fiercely radical in thought and intensely socialistic in
execution, the film plunges beneath the poverty line to emerge with characters
whose despair is not an act for the camera. The sweat and grime, the corruption
and crime are characters of their own in Manjrekar`s chaotic world.
Mumbai never looked murkier and less inviting.
Taking a panoramic look at the lives of thousands of mill workers in Mumbai who
went on an indefinite strike in 1982 is like trying to hold the ocean in a tea
cup. Manjrekar, in what could easily be rated as his finest, most cogent work to
date, does just that.
He holds a universe in the eye of the camera. It is a world of the doomed and
damned, no frills attached.
His return to fine form and the enrapturing energy level that sweeps across a
multitude of lives without trivializing any of the characters are reasons enough
to celebrate the joys of neo-realistic cinema.
But wait... "City Of Gold" not only marks the return of a storyteller
who tells it like it is, without the comfort of shortcuts. It`s also a
macroscopic look at people who populate the fringes. Their silent protests are
seldom heard in cinema.
Not for a second do we feel any comforting distance from the misery of
Manjrekar`s characters.
Manjrekar shoots his characters` emotions in tight, comprehensive close-ups but
wastes no time shedding excessive tears over their lives. The editor (Sarvesh
Parab) cuts the raw material with ruthless economy, leaving no room for humbug
and certainly no space for commercial embellishments.
So the question, what happened to those thousands of mill workers who were
overnight rendered bankrupt after the mills closed down? You will find some
uncomfortable answers in "City Of Gold". But most of the time you will
be faced with questions about the quality of life we choose to hand over to
those who are economically and emotionally weak.
Would this film have worked without the actors who don`t look like they are
facing a camera? The whole batallion of characters flicker to life as though
they were a part of an extended family shot by hidden cameras for a reality
show.
Television actor Karan Patel as the youngest scion of Manjrekar`s troubled
family is a revelation. He portrays pain, humiliation, angst, compromise and
anger with complete authority.
