A friend of mine had watched Listen Amaya when it was screened as a part of the London Asian Film Festival and had raved about it. I hadn't even heard of the film, but when she spoke of it, looking it up on Google and IMDb, I realised that it had come and gone.
I've watched the film on DVD yesterday and I have to say, the praise is justified!
I am a middle aged divorcée. While Listen Amaya speaks of two widowed people wanting to start a relationship, I see so many subtle themes that are at play here, that I can so easily relate to what happens on screen.
Children have no right over their parents or their lives, and for the vast majority of Indians, it is almost impossible to comprehend that fact. Our responsibility towards our children is to bring them up, care for and nurture them to become free thinking individuals, in their own lives. I as a parent though, still reserve the right to live mine the way I see fit. If I choose to take a partner, whether in marriage or in civil partnership, it is my fundamental right to do so.
I enjoyed the way Leela and Jayant's love story unfolded with such grace and simplicity. I thoroughly enjoyed the liberal use of intelligent humour and I admit that I also choked at some of the more emotional moments. Rarely have I seen a film which touches on sensitive issues and still stays away from sermonizing about what is right or wrong. That doesn't mean the film has no flaws.
It could easily have been a little shorter in the first half of the film. It definitely did not need any songs, although two of them are situational and therefore may be discounted. While the language used is primarily Hindi, there is too much English for it to be accepted as a mainstream film and therein lies it's biggest problem. A film like this deserves to be seen by a very wide audience, because so many people will connect with it, but it does itself no favors by targeting a small section of that audience by the limited marketing it seems to have done.
If I don't agree with the way Leela and Jayant dealt with Amaya's abject pigheadedness, I also understand that it is a deeply personal reaction and that everyone's will be different. So while I won't judge the characters, I will judge what the film did for me. Listen Amaya made me take notice of smaller, independent films that are being made today, which rely on story telling rather than a marketing blitz to sell tickets, or DVD's! It also renewed my faith in the fact that cinema can still entertain, without resorting to cheap gimmickry or sleaze.
See it if you can, because it's two hours that will stay with you for a lot longer than the time you took to watch it.
I've watched the film on DVD yesterday and I have to say, the praise is justified!
I am a middle aged divorcée. While Listen Amaya speaks of two widowed people wanting to start a relationship, I see so many subtle themes that are at play here, that I can so easily relate to what happens on screen.
Children have no right over their parents or their lives, and for the vast majority of Indians, it is almost impossible to comprehend that fact. Our responsibility towards our children is to bring them up, care for and nurture them to become free thinking individuals, in their own lives. I as a parent though, still reserve the right to live mine the way I see fit. If I choose to take a partner, whether in marriage or in civil partnership, it is my fundamental right to do so.
I enjoyed the way Leela and Jayant's love story unfolded with such grace and simplicity. I thoroughly enjoyed the liberal use of intelligent humour and I admit that I also choked at some of the more emotional moments. Rarely have I seen a film which touches on sensitive issues and still stays away from sermonizing about what is right or wrong. That doesn't mean the film has no flaws.
It could easily have been a little shorter in the first half of the film. It definitely did not need any songs, although two of them are situational and therefore may be discounted. While the language used is primarily Hindi, there is too much English for it to be accepted as a mainstream film and therein lies it's biggest problem. A film like this deserves to be seen by a very wide audience, because so many people will connect with it, but it does itself no favors by targeting a small section of that audience by the limited marketing it seems to have done.
If I don't agree with the way Leela and Jayant dealt with Amaya's abject pigheadedness, I also understand that it is a deeply personal reaction and that everyone's will be different. So while I won't judge the characters, I will judge what the film did for me. Listen Amaya made me take notice of smaller, independent films that are being made today, which rely on story telling rather than a marketing blitz to sell tickets, or DVD's! It also renewed my faith in the fact that cinema can still entertain, without resorting to cheap gimmickry or sleaze.
See it if you can, because it's two hours that will stay with you for a lot longer than the time you took to watch it.