A dip in a sea of overwhelming emotions…Mein, Mehmood: REVIEW

Picture this: A woman is standing still on a railway station platform, waiting… with a train moving at full speed behind her. There is uncomfortable immobility against the backdrop of uncontrollable motion.

This is what filmmaker Prataya Saha’s latest short film — Mein, Mehmood — feels like. It’s simple; it’s slow, yet in a short span of 11 minutes, it reflects upon a myriad of emotions and traverses a bunch of real-life struggles faced by millions of people around the world today…the struggle of fitting in, the struggle of being away from loved ones, the struggle of keeping up with the times.

Ozair Abdul Aleem does a brilliant job as Mehmood, perfectly portraying a regular man’s fatigue, helplessness, and loneliness in a world that refuses to slow down. Even as the movie dishes out dialogues in multiple languages, it is Ozair’s expressions that do most of the talking. In an age where English as a language has spread its tentacles to every level of society, the movie sheds light on a number of other issues enveloping our generation — the issue of identity crisis, the need to check all boxes, the need to belong.

The endnote of the film captures the plight of immigrants in one short phrase and urges you to rethink the purpose of language in our lives. Once again, Prataya spins a tale that is real, relatable, topical, and crisp.