As I have mentioned many times before, the last few years I have watched a number of ‘quarantine films' as part of the SYF Initiative, with the majority of them coming from India, to a point that a question of if there is any purpose for any more of them to be shot has become a permanent one in my mind. Despite my own thoughts, however (and who cares about them actually) Indian filmmakers continue to produce such films, with the latest one coming from Hindole H-Shihan, who implements a European art-house approach to the whole concept.
“Eat Your Breakfast Son!” review is part of the Submit Your Film Initiative
After attending his mother's funeral, who died due to COVID-19, Farhan comes back to his apartment, in a state that seems to be rather apathetic. The news are playing on the TV (which seems to have been already on when he returned) focusing on the latest developments of the virus, but Farhan does not seem to be listening at all. Instead he opens an envelope he was carrying with him, and starts checking the papers inside of it, documents about his mother's death. Eventually he closes the TV and moves to the kitchen where he starts preparing his meal. The whole procedure reminds him of his mother and her titular “order”, and finally leads him to the release of his grief.
H-Shihan's rather European/art-house approach does not work particularly well for the 25-minute short, with the monochrome, the lack of any kind of voice, the lengthy close-ups to the face of the protagonist or the milk boiling or the upper part of the stove with the spoon ending up appearing rather pretentious, without adding anything to the narrative, essentially a futile effort for the movie to appear more artistic. These tactics also fault the eloquence of the main comment here, of how everyday tendencies, like the preparation of a meal, can end up being rather significant; the moments that will be mostly missed when the person “in charge” is gone, and consequently, how memory and grief are interconnected. The comment is interesting, but unfortunately, it becomes lost in all the lengthy shots, which also prolong the movie for no apparent reason.
Individually, on the other hand, both DP Saon Majumder's framing and black-and-white visuals, and the overall approach to the sound, with the news first and the storm later providing a rather bleak soundscape that mirrors the protagonist's mentality rather well, are on a very high level, highlighting the fact that, technically, at least, H-Shihan definitely knows what he is doing.
In the end, “Eat Your Breakfast Son!” emerges as a mixed bag, as if the director did not know if he wanted to shoot a short or some sort of installation. The artistry is there on a number of aspects, but definitely not enough to deem the movie as one of overall quality.
