Masaan

In the olden days, non-commercial or art movies were made with a social message. These days, they are made because of the following reasons:

• So a newbie director can be taken seriously. Fact is, the new guy will not be able to make a commercial movie with top stars so this is a good way to get some fame
• The top production houses are making movies with the stars. The content based movies get funded by Phantom films. Where does that leave other production houses? With movies like Masaan
• The movie is sent to one of the film festivals where it may or may not be appreciated. Who knows, right? For marketing, make the known face wear clothes by the top designer and promote it everywhere

I have a bone to pick with this movie specially because of all the hype and the good ratings. It is as if the critics are too scared to speak the truth. How is it possible that everyone has appreciated the movie? How? 

Any good movie has below:

• A good plot
• A great cast

Everything else is a filler. Masaan fails on the first count and only Vicky Kaushal's acting saves the latter from being a total disaster. 

Masaan refers to the ghats of North India where dead bodies are burned. There are 3 stories in the flick. 

Devi (Richa Chadda) and her friend Piyush meet at a hotel to sleep with each other. They are caught by the cops during a raid and Piyush commits suicide. Devi's father- Pathak (Sanjay Mishra) is called to the station and is harassed for the next 3 months for money to "manage" the case. 

Deepak Chaudhary (Vicky Kaushal) is from a low caste family whose job it is to burn the dead bodies. He is studying engineering along with helping his father with the job. He falls in love with a girl- Shaalu (Shwetha Tripathi) from an upper caste family. Their love story ends tragically.

Jhonta (Nikhil Sahni) is a child who helps Pathak at the shop. He starts diving into the water for a competition where people bet on the kid who will search for the maximum number of coins in the river Ganga and almost dies.

In the end, Deepak and Devi meet in Allahabad and that is where the movie ends. I guess it means, they fall in love and are happy together. Or not.

Here are my problems with the movie:

• There is nothing new in the story. In fact, the plot is terrible. 
• The director- Neeraj Ghaywan, has tried to make the movie as boring as possible. There isn't a hint of happiness in Devi or Pathak's life. 
• Devi is the worst character of all. I knew exactly what Deepak was feeling and going through but I had no idea what Devi was doing and why. I don't know if the characterization was faulty or Richa Chadda didn't know how to portray the role
• What was the point of Jhonta's storyline? 

What I liked about the movie:

• Vicky Kaushal is quite a find. What an amazing actor. Did anyone else notice that none of the hype and promotions have Vicky in it? I only saw Richa everywhere and Shweta at some places
• The song "Tu kisi rail si"... amazing
• The Benaras set up but only because most movies have the big town set up and I miss seeing small towns on screen

I did not like the movie... at all and I actually like art/non-commercial cinema. This movie is all hype and no substance.