Bhangaar

Sumira Roy / Long Documentaries / India / Marathi & English / 64 minutes / 2024

7th March 2025 | 6:15 PM | C. D. Deshmukh Auditorium

In a century-old chawl* we meet Ira and Narayan who have lived together in a 12ft x 12ft partitioned room for 53 years. Without affluence or influence, these unconventional octogenarians not only legally petition the highest authorities in the country, but actively engage the media to have their voice heard in a world that often overlooks them. Attention brings the watchful eye of the police to their door.

Within their walls they bide their hours in restless silences, feeling sentenced to live beyond their wishes. At times they banter and quarrel about their life choices, which are the antithesis to the beliefs of the Konkanastha brahmin community they belong to. Indeterminable waiting causes time to hang heavy in their room.

Outside their front door, we are transported from their island of isolation, to the frenetic rhythms of chawl life where seasons, festivals, events, rush by. The couple’s ageing bodies and minds, juxtaposed with the relentless march of progress of city and its dwellers, tell parallel stories of transience. Within this narrative, a neighbourhood sculptor, crafting Ganesha idols, symbolises the eternal cycle of birth, life and death. Through this ethnic microcosm, universal themes of love, loss, freedom, ageing, are uncovered. An unforeseen crisis brings the couple to a crossroad.

           *Chawl is an iconic Mumbai structure-a long tenement building with multiple small rooms providing

          affordable accommodation to migrants seeking a better livelihood in Mumbai. Once a cultural hub,

         chawls are being demolished for redevelopment. With the chawl way of life slowly dying, the couple

         feel alienated by the rapid modernisation of Mumbai.