'Memories In March' could have been memorable

Film: Memories in March (U/A)
Director: Sanjoy Nag
Cast: Deepti Naval, Rituparno Ghosh, Raima Sen
Rating: ***

Arati (Naval) is a grief-stricken mother who has lost her young son Siddharth aka Babu, an advertising professional, in a freak car accident. In Calcutta to attend his funeral, Arati is jolted by some truths about her son’s personality which she had no clue about.
 
In Calcutta she meets Ornab (Ghosh) and Sahana (Sen), discovers their strange individual relationships with the late Sid, whom we meet only through letters and a voice-over.

Most of the screen time is taken to show Arati’s relationship with Sid’s colleagues, both of whom had a special bond with the ill-fated young man.

Director Sanjay Nag uses extreme close-ups and symbolism to convey the wide-ranging emotions (primarily different levels of grief and their reasons) the characters go through.

Each one believes his/her pain is deeper and finds their own way of moving on with life. The story remains a beautiful tale of complex revelations and even more complex relationships.

Naval fits the role of grief-stricken mother but falls short of convincingly expressing desolation. The film progresses at snail's pace, but Naval seems to move on quickly, as though nothing much had happened.

In his stubborn quest to insist on euphemism, the director underplays death so much that it fails to make an impact or arouse sympathy.

Filmmaker-turned-actor Ghosh could have easily been the star performer here, but in most scenes he looks artificial, emphasising superfluousness. Unrequited love brings out the best in Sen, who is charming and convincing at the same time.
 
Nag’s attempt at understanding homosexuality is innocent, yet unintentionally funny in parts. He uses extreme close-ups and symbolism in abundance to prove his point. He also uses very light humour to ease the tension among conflicting characters. The deep freezer scene with Naval is particularly striking and has the punch to choke you.

But the pace of the film can put you off. Almost dragging for the first half, the film offers more in terms of twists only in the second half. Nag tends to underplay negativity around the death of a close one so much that it starts to look funny how people move on so easily.
 
If you can't catch Memories in the theatres, you won’t be missing much, to be honest. Watch it only for the beautiful story, narrated in three languages (English, Bengali and Hindi) with a real human touch.