QUICK’N DIRTY: LIVE FROM THE RED SEA
Preeti (Manasi Kaushik) and Samrat (Sarthak Sharma) are in the early days of their relationship and the future looks bright. They moved to Mumbai, India’s largest and wealthiest city, and they are both in employment. Preeti wants to prove to her meddling parents and relatives that it was worth giving up a doctor career in order to pursue her own dreams instead. She seeks to capture the glam and the glitz of their new life with her mobile phone and to share it with her 73,243 online followers. And to make some money in the process.
The fact that Preeti knows their exact follower count is a clear red flag. The couple rely mostly on feigned smiles, dissimulated banter and a forged sense of spontaneity in order to engage their audience, and to keep the sponsor brands onboard. Their salaries – of just US$400 – are barely enough for them to survive. The prospect of redundancies is a daunting one, which they attempt to dismiss. “The is economy down, and a lot of people are being laid off. But I don’t expect to be fired“, claims an optimistic Samrat.
Social media doesn’t always liberate. Soon, our protagonists become imprisoned by their online personas and barely recognise each other. The experience turns gruelling and degrading. They beg for audience engagement: “DM for paid collaboration”. Preeti is jealous of old friend Sonam because she is a bigger influencer. Competitiveness, invidiousness and mistrust prevail. The romantic relationship predictably begins to break down.
The most remarkable quality of Early Days is its visual informality. There is no artificial lighting, the images are grainy (presumably with a very low ISO making up for the little light), the handheld camera often shaky, and the music score minimalistic. It is such austerity that prevails even when dealing with the topic of mobile technology. This is a peculiar creative choice, and a mostly successful one. It’s as if first-time director Priyankar Patra was saying: “real life is far less colourful and glamorous than Instagram”. In one of the movie’s most crucial scenes the director, writer and cinematographer captures an argument from the other side of the street, and the audio is barely discernible, drowned by the passing cars. The sense of alienation is entirely palpable.
While dented by some strange camera movements, clunky audio and an underwhelming ending, Early Days is a genuine auteurial affair, not dissimilar to Hong Sang-soo (who also directs, writes and operates the camera in his films). All in all, this is a humanistic and universal film, with a relatable story and strong performances. Hopefully this is just the beginning of Patra’s career.
Early Days showed in the 5th Red Sea International Film Festival.
