A Death in the Gunj

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🎙️ EPISODE 283: 07.17.2020 Well, this is nice... the first movie in my TRUE RANDOM film series that is actually, well, a good movie! In her directorial debut, actress Konkona Sen Sharma helms a truly nuanced portrait of a family, a period piece set in a small town called McCluskieganj on the Eastern side of India, late 1970s. This is the type of movie I was seeking when I thought up the TRUE RANDOM idea, to take me out of my comfort zone, only to realize that the language of cinema is universal. If you can seek this one out, watch it; it's really great.

The film works backwards, disguised as a whodunit, taking place over seven days, each intercut with title cards. Who died and/or who killed who is a mystery till the end. The viewer slowly forgets about that in the forefront but it's always in the back of their mind. The conflict of the living is intriguing enough. Sharma doesn't take any time to spell out the relations and relationships, instead she lets the film play out naturally, revealing what it needs to when it needs to.

The movie looks tremendous. My ignorance of modern world cinema at this non-blockbuster level is beyond suspect. I feel cheated having missed so much. Take this shot of a dead moth inside a book...


Impeccably lit, to say nothing of its meaning, which is deep. The film is littered with visual metaphors like this...


The mixing of language throughout is another interesting element, one you wouldn't easily find in an American film. The characters, clearly still of post-Colonial India, speak mostly English, with both Hindi and Bengali mixed in, for clearly concrete reasons.

There's also a subplot involving strained relations with the family's darker-skinned Indian servants, which–shockingly with everything else happening–doesn't feel shoehorned in. Everything felt really well considered and detailed. Overall, A Death in the Gunj is an elegant subversion of the family drama presented as murder mystery. It's a high 9 for sure. I loved it.

CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 282 - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 283B ⫸

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