ANKAHI- A sonorous proclamation of wordless love.

 

Though Short films through their apparent structural constraints appear to be a tricky territory to navigate, filmmakers have time and again found it a very liberating format to tell stories about love. As Tagore said about story stories, “Sesh hoyeo hoilo na sesh” meaning it ends but doesn’t seem to have ended, scriptwriters have exploited the hopeless Romantic in us with the hope and inquisitiveness that lingers with the ending of a short film. Kayoze Irani’s “Ankahee”- part of the Netflix anthology “Ajeeb Dastaan” does just that with its anachronistic romance and both warms and breaks your heart in a span of a few minutes.

The very first scene of Ankahi establishes the two characters and the conflict at hand as we see the camera panning to the protagonists in the bed against the morning sun. Soon we see the woman, Natasha(Shefali Shah) getting ready to go out and the man, Kabir(Manav Kaul) has his eyes glued on the woman like a love-sick cat. They talk and flirt in sign languages and it doesn’t take much effort to decipher that there is a playfulness in the Romance and also some tension between them. And with Kabir’s last-minute hesitation in wording something out and Natasha looking back to catch glimpse of Kabir while she walks out of the gate tells you that though the two seem perfectly capable of communicating without words, there is something larger at stake here- something that has been left unsaid and hasn’t been talked through.

The next few minutes show us Natasha’s mundane life- providing care for her soon-going deaf daughter and having loud fights with her busy and apparently emotionally unavailable husband who despite knowing her daughter’s condition refuses to learn and communicate with her in sign language. Her daughter leaves her with the question that what does it take for a person to be loved because just being physically attractive or “functional” is clearly not enough. Weirdly when Natasha was on the verge of giving up on love, she stumbles upon Kabir- a deaf and mute photographer who captures pictures that have hidden “sadness” about them. They both immediately connect over the language of gestures, humour and a tinge of melancholy that they both find it one another. Natasha finds her calming abode in Kabir amidst the hustle-bustle of the city outside and opposite to her chaotic married life. Also here is a man who can’t listen but actually “listens” to her while her husband just refuses to listen as he says he is tired of her voice. Similarly, Kabir reveals that he prefers to stay deaf as he is tired of people lying to him and just like the famous Scarface quote says, “your lips can lie. But your eyes always say the truth”. They bonded through silent glances and wordless proclamation of adoration which eventually lead to nocturnal lovemaking.

Kayoze understands the complexity of love and how the burden of our "state" can make us feel and perceive love in different ways. Thus Kayoze revisits the opening scene, but this time he follows Kabir- juxtaposed against the tension that was created when the camera followed Natasha in the opening scene. You could feel the innocence and infatuation of falling in love as Kabir's eyes and legs dance through the house hooked to Natasha and he follows her to her home in the pursuit of probably confessing his love, as we, the audience sit with the feeling in our gut that something is going to get haywire.

As Natasha opens the door, she finds her husband and daughter gleefully engaging in banter as they communicate in sign language. When she turns and finds a flummoxed Kabir outside her door, she helplessly stares for a second as she knows she has to make a decision and thus refused to acknowledge Kabir before shutting the door off and breaking down in tears. It must be noted how the shift of language has been crafted here. For the first time, Natasha didn't speak a word and silently nodded to communicate with her husband while she spoke aloud to communicate and dismiss Kabir's existence from her life. As the language and medium of expression swap places, you realize that things won't be the same again.

Manav Kaul's incredible face acting aggravates the impact of those ending moments. Kabir goes through a plethora of emotions in a few seconds- from being shocked to feeling betrayed and heartbroken to feeling happy for the person he loved. He says, "You managed to lie with your eyes" as he has this revelation that eyes lie or maybe the truth is just not the only truth to live with. You feel that the betrayal of Kabir was problematic, but love can be messy and heart-wrenching because as humans we are never sure what is the right thing for us to do. Natasha's decision might appear to be selfish but you can't blame anyone for choosing a life they deserved and taking another shot at reviving it. Unlike the Other shorts of the anthology, here the twist wasn't shocking, there were signs all the while and Kabir just like everyone in love ignored them. Kabir must have felt emotionally used and betrayed at the moment but there's no denying the fact that Natasha has also lost the "love" she longed for all the while and though he will be just down the street, she will never see him again. Shefali Shah's moist eyes lament the loss of love which can’t be reclaimed once the door is shut. Thus she doesn't answer her daughter’s query, "did that man love you?" because she knows he did and though she might have a shot at a healthy marriage again, she is going to grieve all her life.

Kabir's moment of revelation invariably reminds us of Barfi's heartbreak when Shruti doesn't acknowledge him and breaks his heart. Both the men have no words to speak aloud but their loquacious eyes do most of the talking as they feel a cornucopia of emotions within. They feel helpless and shattered because there was only a silent proclamation of love, they needed no more assurance to take that giant leap of faith called- FALLING IN LOVE. While Barfi's response to the treachery had more theatrics, Kabir blurted only a line “You managed to lie with your eyes”- enough to let the beloved realize their wrongdoing. Weirdly enough, Barfi goes off asking Shruti to smile and Kabir follows his ending lineup with a smile too. We don't know whether they will forgive them but we know they only want happiness for the other person. Kabir believed big promises didn’t matter and only little things and understanding matter but both Barfi and Kabir, in the end, with their silent heartbreak learn as Borges said-

"That kisses are not contracts and gifts are not promises,

and you start to accept defeat with the head up high

and open eyes"