The Hangman: A Failed Execution review
It is no village different from the ordinary Indian village. The villagers are assembled in a group discussion, the chickens roam the muddy neighborhood, the women carry out their daily routine and out of nowhere we hear the common and so called uneducated village folk conversing in English as if it is their common speech! At that point one may think, education and development has finally reached the deep unexplored villages of the motherland. But wait, it turns out that it is not really so and the entire film is in the English language.
‘The Hangman,’ is about an executioner, Shiva, who is trying to live with his job of hanging sentenced people to death. His skill with the noose is unmatched. An occupation passed on from generation to generation, he doesn’t want his son to follow in his shadowed footsteps. His singular dream is to see his son in a khaki uniform. And he will do anything to see it happen.
Here starts the humdrum storyline. The attention is shifted on the hangman’s son, Ganesh. Since the Inspector at the village jail and Shiva are friends, the former takes full responsibility of Ganesh and gives him a place to stay bearing all expenses. Here starts the life of a typical village boy in the city, trying to excel in his studies and adapt to the routine life of city students (i.e. smoking up drugs at every time of the day) He can’t be the ‘ideal’ student he wishes to be because he gets involved not only with half-baked dreams, but also gets involved with the only daughter of the inspector and is soon kicked out when exposed. The dream shatters and Ganesh conveniently finds a place to stay in a brothel, sharing a room with a girl, who would turn out to be his caregiver.
The movie skips back and forth far too many times from the village to the city. The juxtaposition of shots with contrasting locations brings a sense of abruptness as neither is allowed to develop or seep in completely. The movie also faces some shortcomings with the dubbing which adds on to the irksome experience when one attempts to empathize with the character. Here comes the obvious question that why was the film made in English? It would have been simpler and more realistic if it were made in Hindi! With the sari clad women discussing their daily talks in English, on a daily Indian village street just does not (and I cannot stress more) appeal to the naive eye.
Meanwhile, as Shiva is seeking answers to life in philosophy from Ganesh’s teacher, who acts as a listening ear to him; the movie skips back to the city where Ganesh is developing an interest in the girl with which he is sharing a room in the brothel (which appears to be a badly painted wooden set). The story moves on with an emotional mood which fails to captivate the audience.
Probably the only highlight of the film was the acting of Om Puri, which seemed to be his standard best and the scenes with the prison setting which bring out a sense of eeriness. But apart from that, nothing impresses.
It can hardly be said the script had potential. The director Vishal Bhandari, fails to tie the right knot in the minds of the audience and one is left hanging in mid air searching for something to get high on.
(1 vote)
