Usually we walk through our lives noticing very little besides the routine we have created for ourselves. This does not necessarily make us ignorant or selfish, but human, as we follow a path we know works and gets through a stressful day at work, in the city or at least until we can make the time to notice something. In general, we tend to see change first, something outside the stream of life we have gotten used to, but if we dare look closer, even the parameters of our routine become somewhat odd, complicated and even tragic.
Even though you might not know Indian director Vivek Mohan personally, he seems to be a believer in looking closer at matters which we have made part of a routine. Following his Facebook motto that “life teaches me a lot”, the events of his daily way to work offered a surprising insight into the world of another human being. Eventually this experience created the foundation for his short film “The Bus Stop”.
In the roughly five minutes of “The Bus Stop”, an office worker (Vivek Mohan) has begun to question an event he witnesses every day. An elderly woman (Dhanapakyam) leaves a small, folded piece of paper by the gate to her house and then walks back inside. Later, as he steps outside the bus, the worker notices how the woman has removed the piece of paper again. The ritual takes place every day until one day something out of the ordinary happens.
On the surface, not much happens in “The Bus Stop”. In fact, everything about the film – until the final moments – is quite ordinary to the point of being tedious. From the stereotypical office worker to the inevitable wait for the bus to arrive, the scene which takes place in the film could have been filmed in every other country in the world.
However, there are visual clues within the film, which dare the viewer to look closer. Already the dilapidated state of the woman's home along with the garden gate covered in moss and rust give away more information about her emotional state. Obviously used to the community of others along with a life dedicated to the religion of purpose and work, Vivek Mohan's character seems curious in a certain way. But in the end, his character does not break the unwritten laws of his routine.
Additonally, the overall framing of “The Bus Stop” reveals a distinct direction Mohan seems to aim for. The documentary-style approach, along with the occasional frame being out of focus mirror the bystander, the watcher of the whole event looking in on the day of two other human beings. Once we have gotten used to the “ordinary” quality of the images, the man and the viewer make a discovery that questions the nature of the events before.
In the end, “The Bus Stop” is a film about the importance of watching out for other people. And while the use of music seems a bit over-the-top, the general message and visual style of the music are quite interesting. Behind the ordinary, the boring and the routine of our lives lies another world which we sometimes are granted permission to look into, and sometimes we have to be willing to do so.
