No Grass For The Horse To Chew, Do Offer Some Alms!

There are few films intentionally made, which just offer you their two cents of explanation without babbling much. Anhey Ghorey Da Daan (Alms For A Blind Horse) is one such film (based on Punjabi novel with the same name writ by Gurdial Singh), which opens up in the lucidity of the  dawn, and ends up in equal clarity of the dusk. What unfolds before you is the most meticulous and artistic form of film-making, where you’ll find it hard to understand whatever’s being said, and your mind shall continue pondering over the thoughts cast unsaid. Even the frames of Punjab witnessed in this movie are not what we usually get to see in 70mm.

Aanhey ghorey da daan by Gurvinder Singh

True to every single emotion, the touch of life, even though drab, falls apart slowly and it’s hard not to feel helpless. The story is stitched around a Dalit family in Punjab, headed by Father (Mal Singh) which finds itself dragged into the wake of demolition of villages by a dominant land-owning establishment, awaiting news from their elder son Melu, a cycle-richshaw driver who relocated to a town close by without tasting much happiness. The silent, lined face of Mal Singh gives out a prolonged figure of noble protest that has died out to injustice.

You’ll have to totally marinate yourself in this story, only then can you experience the deepest level of despair felt by people who have no hope. The brilliant cinematography and the deep metaphorical meaning blurted out with every single moving frame just adds to the pain. Directed by Gurvinder Singh, Anhey Ghorey Da Daan is dark as compared to other Punjabi films, agreed, and some may find the slow pace of the film ho-hum, but one cannot deny that the film’s silence is unnerving to the very core. Watch this film for the sheer joy of catching a heartfelt cinema, as if watching an artist render his art, and then you won’t be disappointed.

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