From the film's synopsis: Every year in India, on occasions of religious festivals, political elections and even banal events like politicians' birthdays – vast numbers of posters go up in public places. These posters look absurdly identical – a splatter of primary colors, mugshots of devotees or politicians, and messaging devoted to the festival Gods or wishing their seniors a happy birthday. Now, in the midst of the pandemic and its restrictions, and with the major religious festival of Lord Ganesha approaching, I gained access and worked with a group of three laundry-workers in my neighborhood in Mumbai; their laundrymen's association regularly created and featured themselves in these posters. interviewed them and filmed their process of creating the poster, also capturing the muted celebration of the festival.
“Party Poster” review is part of the Submit Your Film Initiative
In an approach that reminds much of his previous short, the excellent “Tungrus”, Rishi Chandna presents a film that seems like a documentary in its realism, but at the same time presents a reality so surrealistic, that it might as well be a mockumentary. In that fashion, we watch the three laundrymen, Munna, Rajesh and Prem going about the rather hard labor, which is only interrupted by their plans to create the banner, including a hilarious interaction with the graphic designer, a woman who actually follows the absurd instructions under the “excuse” of the poster also serving a political purpose. Which heads are bigger, how big is the red marking on the forehead and how dark the sunglasses appear are among the instructions, and the result looks as funny and excessive as expected.
At the same time, the three protagonists, as much as the people around them, try to follow Covid instructions, even if the Prime Minister at some point allowed for any kind of cloth to be used instead of a proper mask, and also celebrate Lord Ganesha, with both aspects actually finding their way into the poster. That somehow, these three elements, Covid (science if you prefer), Ganesha (religion) and politics coexist both in the banner and the minds of the people emerges as the most pointed, but also hilarious comment in the movie.
This combination of social commentary and ironic humor actually permeates the whole movie, and is the main source of the intelligent satire here, even more so, when the concept of social media comes to the fore, and an antagonism for the most likes and comments is initiated. Rishi Chandna also takes care of presenting the banner at moments that connect the image with what the protagonists are saying, in another element that adds to the deadpan style of humor here. As such, the editing emerges as one of the best aspects of the short, with Chandna and Grant Davis's work being top notch in that regard.
Navagat Prakash and Ashutosh Thakur's cinematography captures all these elements in a fashion that adds to the documentary/mockumentary aesthetics of the movie, taking full advantage of the colorfulness of the banners to create a series of rather appealing movies, while also capturing the poorness of the environment the protagonists inhabit. The job done in the sound by Alok Kotian and Aditya Singh is of equal level, particularly in the way the drying of the clothes on the wall becomes the soundtrack of the whole movie.
“Party Poster” is an excellent short and a testament to the fact that Rishi Chandna has perfected the presentation of realities that might as well be fiction.
