R E V I E W – M O V I E
Fiana Islam
Released Year: 2017
Genre: Drama
Duration: 1h 45m
Production Companies: Jazz Multimedia, Eskay Movies
Main Cast: Irrfan Khan, Nusrat Imrose Tisha, Parno Mittra, Rokeya Prachy, Rahad Hossain
Despite being a huge movie buff, I always tend to miss the most hyped ones, and this time, it’s Farooki’s Doob! If I am being honest, I haven’t watched this movie earlier. But after all these years, Netflix has notified me about this, and finally, I gave it a shot.
What I experienced is, Doob: No Bed of Roses is a movie of beauty and beyond. I think the driving force of this movie is some of its mesmerising scenes — created with immense effort to make them look as natural as possible for the audience.
I have picked seven scenes from the movie that are worth attracting the viewers’ attention.
Let’s peek into them.
1.
The film starts with this scene. The setting is in a school reunion where two friends, the female lead roles of Doob, Saberi (Tisha) and Nitu (Parno Mittra), meet again after a long time. They used to be the best of friends in school days and are now just sitting together, silently without any fuss, without any noise. A reunion is supposed to be nostalgic — with memories, laughter, and happiness. But this scene has shown the opposite. With the major flashback, the story unfolds and also, wraps up with this single scene.
Many things have passed between all these years. Both Saberi and Nitu lost their loved ones, and at the same time, they both blame each other. Somehow I like to think that fate has another plan for these two. They are both young, beautiful, and talented. Both of them have a long life ahead of them to live. Maybe, this very reunion is portraying something different, something positive — the symbol of rebuilding the long lost friendship and memories.
2.
The movie executes a really strong message through this scene. The male protagonist here is vulnerable, lost, and alienated — quite opposite from the conventional impression of men. The filmmakers attempted to bring out the fact of men’s loneliness, and showed a man can also be emotional and passive in every possible way. The mainstream society expects men to be strong, aggressive with an active state of mind and body. The very notion about these expected attributes shatters when something happens otherwise.
Alienation has tended to become a crucial part of human lives. It clung to the protagonist as well in his midlife, and as a result, we see him desperately looking for an escape in his farmhouse/studio Nayantara Film City. No matter how happy someone is, a moment of solidarity will always be craved by every individual in their life, and in Doob, it is Javed Hasan (Irrfan Khan) who wholeheartedly felt that craving.
3.
At this point in the movie, we find ourselves stuck in an ocean of dilemma in choosing right and wrong. It is the moment you will feel life can be too disappointing sometimes. The pain that the characters feel grasps the audience too. The fear, the agony of losing someone precious to our fate can be so unfair.
The father is standing on the verge of leaving his family behind for good and for the last time before leaving his house, all he wanted is a glass of water. The daughter who was upstairs the whole time, knew it well that her father would never pour the glass on his own. So, as soon as she hears her father’s fading footsteps, she rushes towards the door and faces him for the last time with a glass of water. Water, that will quench her father’s thirst.
The moment everyone expects her to cry and scream in anger, she chooses to remain silent so that one can sense how devastated she is, and hear her speak through the eyes, “I have fulfilled all my duties as your daughter even though you failed as my father.”
4.
When was the last time you hugged your parents? Or you told them how much they mean to you? Sometimes, it is hard to remember. It is for me, at least!
Over time, we often tend to forget the value of our precious ones — the ones who make us complete and whole. Just like a gentle reminder, Doob has given us a particular scene — a scene where a daughter conveys her feelings to her mother on her birthday. They are right in the middle of nowhere, a field full of Kashful — away from the hectic city life; the tranquillity of the place will take over your heart too. Suddenly, the daughter, Saberi, picks up her phone and calls her mother, Maya, who is right behind her.
“Ma, ever since you stopped waiting for someone to tell you what to do, ever since you decided not to give in to self-pity, ever since you started to see yourself as an individual, you’ve become the most beautiful woman in this world…and we are proud of you!”
She expressed this with a teary voice as if it were the end of the world and she felt obliged to say this to her loving mother. The filmmakers did a great job by delivering a particular mood to this scene. The embarrassment we always feel as Brown children to open up to our parents, but at the same time, the urge of letting them know our love, our feelings, our care is beautifully staged here!
5.
“Tell your classmates that you hate your dad and he’s a bad guy. Declare this once and for all. And they’ll stop teasing you.”
When Javed Hasan was uttering these lines to his one and only son, not for once his son Ahir looked him in the eyes or even replied. With an immense amount of guilt, the father is asking the reason for skipping schools, and the son is just standing there, speechless, facing the ground like a breathing statue.
Ahir is just a child in his teenage years. It could also be possible that he does not even understand properly what on earth had happened to his family. Despite everything, there was no anger or hatred in his face for his father — only despair. The way Javed feels the longing to hear Baba from his child’s mouth gives the audience a desperate wish to see them reunited again. Sadly, that wish remained unfulfilled.
6.
In the whole movie, this scene carries a sort of paradoxical message. Here we see Maya (Rokeya Prachy) put some photographs (of her former husband and children) on the table that were lying on the drawer for a long time. She does not shed a single tear after acknowledging her former beloved’s departure.
For a second, it might seem heartless. But then again, we must not forget how strong of a woman Maya has been from the beginning. The hidden purpose of this scene is to focus on her extraordinary bravery. In the background, we hear her saying,
“When I first heard of your death, I was somewhat happy.
I was happy because you are no longer in someone else’s custody. Now I can close my eyes and see you in my mind.”
The love for her beloved husband that she has been suppressing this whole time gets finally exposed. She believes in her mind — “Only death can make someone free!” With this belief, we observe the calmness in her tone, the numbness in her face, and the aching in her heart — an unimaginable and heroic representation of the misery.
7.
I do not know how to describe this one. The last scene of Doob — the last scene of Javed Hasan, a renowned filmmaker of Bangladesh who had spent the first phase of life with his family and fan’s love and support, but finally met death while suffering in the biggest crisis of his life, deep down inside all alone and ignorant.
He wanted to fill the void by marrying for the second time after his first separation, but somehow something was left behind. It could be the love for his children — Saberi and Ahir, or the companionship with his ex-wife Maya, or it could be just the HOME he abandoned.
Maybe this is why for the last time, we see Javed Hasan returning to the only place that used to be his home once, where peace lies, where he can transform into a living memory. “Death returns the love, respect, and honour” — finally we hear him speak from the beyond. The restrained silence of this scene is what art should be.
Doob is definitely a sensitive one. For some, as a movie, it might seem slow or lengthy but without any doubt, it will introduce the audience to some common themes of life and existence. Moreover, it is a family film which means there is a fine chance of watching it with your folks and feel blue together — not every movie has this advantage, eh?
Fiana is a human-ish writer by day and a Scorpio coven witch by nightfall. Reach out to her @_ffikipedia_ to share any thoughts.