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Varanasi (Benares) has held a strange fascination for an unlikely plethora of travelers and denizens, from ash clad Aghori Sadhus and weed smoking hippies to hapless widows and trigger happy photojournalists. For me the defining image of Varanasi is of the never ending pyres on the banks of the Ganga, death in all its naked glory. It is this image that Director Neeraj Ghaywan & writer Varun Grover (Gangs of Wasseypur) take as a central theme of the film to showcase a series of interwoven stories set in this haunting, mythical city. The film explores the lives of the families of a preparer and tender of funeral pyres and a Sanskrit scholar, ubiquitous professions that define Varanasi. A previous attempt by Indo-Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta to showcase the lives of the widows of Varanasi in Water (2005) was largely shot in Sri Lanka as its take on misogyny and social ostracism fell foul of the right wing. Incidentally the screenplay of Water was written by Anurag Kashyap who's Gangs of Wasseypur seems to be a finishing school of sorts for India's cinematic talent. Consider this: the writer, director and lead actress of Masaan are a paean to Anurag's unerring instinct forte as a talent scout

The film's protagonists, newcomer Deepak Chaudhary, as the pyre tender's son & Richa Chaddha as the scholar's daughter provide finely nuanced yet restrained performances that serve as a backdrop for Sanjay Mishra's electrifying performance as the beleaguered father who is a respected scholar coming to terms with a sex scandal that his educated, daughter is embroiled in. This is truly his magnum opus, his portrayal of Vidyadhar Pathak,a man in the last legs of his life and career on having to bravely deal with something that could jeopardize the only thing he has left: his reputation in a city where its the greatest currency. While Deepak has definitely made an impression this film is not a patch on Richa Chaddha's performance in Gangs of Wasseypur. It was never meant to be and that is what makes Richa one of the most watchable actresses of our times.

Masaan has a subtle underlying message of human aspirations and how death, near death and loss of dignity cannot curb our desires to fly. When all hope and companionship is lost we are not averse to 'flying solo'. In a cruel irony Vicky (Deepak) is tending to the pyre of an anonymous woman who he discovers to be his beloved. This was one of the finest scenes of Masaan, where Deepak's soundless pain is felt by the audience. Devi (Richa) has to cope simultaneously with the loss of a loved one, the loss of her employment, a blackmailing inspector Mishra (Bhagwan Tiwari) and her own father's humiliation. Young Jhonta (Nikhil Sahni) nearly loses his life diving for coins in the Ganga as part of a betting game that his employer Vidyadhar Pathak sees as a means to accumulate the bounty demanded by the blackmailing inspector. Yet, they all bounce back. It's not an easy process as we see Devi deal with indecent propositions and suitors and Vicky struggling to master his grief to bag a job, his only ticket out of the burning ghats of Varanasi, where his family has slaved for generations at the bottom of the caste pyramid.

The Cinematography by Avinash Arun does justice to Varanasi in all its dark splendor but restrain in the use of sepia would have saved the viewer some monochrome fatigue. The misty images of Ganga as seen from a boat during a day provide a perfect contrast to the countless scenes of blazing funeral pyres on the banks.

'Love becomes a Funeral Pyre' is the latest biography of The Doors by Mick Wall released in October 2014. The name is borrowed from the lyrics of a popular song by the band titled 'Light my fire' released in 1967 in their self-titled debut album and spent three weeks at top of the Billboard top 100 chart. The theme of the song is 'love cannot wait' something Devi and Vicky epitomize in Masaan.

Banaras doesn't really stand a chance when it comes the nation's top film-makers , does it? From Ray's 'Aparajito' to Mehta's 'Water', this holy cradle of Hinduism has been imbrued with a decidedly unholy miasma. Employing two tracks , one a story of police corruption and victims' cowardice, and another of a young funeral- pyre attendant aspiring to be a civil engineer, Masaan will not inspire you, either, to instantly book a train to this sacred town but holy cow! it does chart a riveting story of loss and hope that mirrors the rebirthing ethos of those stony steps and waters. It neatly slices open its own layers of social milieu to reveal that while the larger whole still seems hopeless, its young rebels calmly persevere to buck the trend. Produced by Manish Mundra and the Phantom Films triumvirate of Bahl, Motwane and Kashyap, 'Masaan' marks the auspicious directorial debut of Neeraj Ghaywan. Most of India will not hear of this film, despite its international accoldes and inherent caliber, but the picture will stand as an emblematic triumph of cinema neatly filtering the modern reality of an ancient epicenter.

One of the pic's strongest assets is the airy light that pleasantly suffuses its wide canvas - I appreciated this better on a 60 inch screen than on a laptop. Cinematographer Avinash Arun Dhaware frames Banaras in clean composed frames that dignify its actual shabby sprawl. There's a superb night-time shot of a boat motoring through dark waters while yellow light silhouettes hives of activity along the town's shores - what's more the on-board narrative continues with similar understated beauty. A terrific medium-length static capture stands tall later in the story when a person enters a house and an uproar ensues inside but the shot maintains the visual hygiene of remaining unmoved outside the gate , gazing at the house exterior. And there's a completely soothing canvas of a boat nearing the survivors of this tale, as it traverses a beautifully sepia mirror-like surface of the Ganga.

In the first story-track, a young couple caught in the act of secret sex are blackmailed by a malignant police inspector , while the other thread revolves around a youngster from a small-town underprivileged background aiming to make it big and the arc of his dalliance with his sweetheart.

The undeclared just-below-the -surface script here narrates how the new gen calmly fights the sclerotic demeaning mores which have robbed the spirit and happiness of their ancestors. Attending to and tidying up funeral pyres his whole life only affords Deepak a meager salary and a depressing hellish job day after day year after year, and his supposedly low-caste birth and position means that he can't carry out the the luxury of courting just about any pretty girl he sees but this does not stop Deepak. On the other track, the traumatized girl Devi Pathak is initially shell-shocked as any girl would be , but steadily we see her true spine (in response to a savage blaming her in public, she retorts "Whatever we did, we BOTH did it!"). Her father persuades her to accept a measly Rs.5000 per month ($100) job from an employer who was his student ,but when she stares at him in cold anger at the recruitment table, the father says in defence - 'But look how much respect he gives us!' (obviously his daughter has moved on from the peanuts gleaned from such token respect).

The film's several producers notwithstanding , I find Anurag Kashyap to be the true moral guardian of this film. Debutante director Neeraj Ghaywan shows an European aesthetic and reserve in depicting his canvas , and a fine temperament is telling a tough story without melodrama. With a producer-director team like this, it is no surprise that 'Masaan', steeped in boondocks bedrocks opaque waters malignant lawkeepers failed fathers ruptured lovers and eternally burning hells , emerges beautifully from the ashes.

More analysis @ Upnworld

The movie is mainly about two characters — Devi and Deepak. Devi is caught having sex with a friend in a hotel room by police who see it as nothing more than a scandal. The guy commits a suicide. She lives with her father and their life is turned upside down with a police officer asking a 3lakh bribe from his father to not put the video on YouTube. She quits her job as they blame her for death of the guy, and struggles to find new jobs. Her dad keen on her working for any sufficient pay so as to pay the bribe. Dad is ashamed of what the daughter has done. Devi is sad about how her right is being treated as her crime. What happened was not her fault. It was the guy who had committed suicide. And both of them consented to have sex. So why blame her? She goes on strongly about it, determined to move to Allahabad once she is done helping her father pay the bribe. She is still in love in with the guy, Piyush. She wants to talk to her family to tell them what had happened, as it is important for any parents to know what were the last conditions of their son still alive. It doesn't go well when she visits them in Allahabad. Her Dad is has struggles of his own. There is Jhonta, a little guy who he bets money on in the competition of which of the kids gets most money out of the river in few dives. He loses him and finds him. Deepak is from a lower caste family whose job is to burn dead bodies and help with rest at a ghat in Ganga. He falls in love with Shaalu Gupta. They both love each other. Until she dies in a road accident. They had talked of running away from home and getting married if their families don't accept it. His life is shattered from her death. She liked Shayri's. Tu Kisi Rail Si Gujarti Hai. Main Kisi Pool Sa Thartharata Hun. He dwells on them for a while. After having thrown her ring in the river and then violent but futile attempt to recover it, he decides to move on. He works hard and lands a job in Allahabad. Devi moves to Allhadbad too for her university course. After visiting Piyush's parents, which doesn't go very well, she decides to move own. Drowns the last gift from Piyush in Ganga and when Sobbing, Deepak approaches to console her. And that is how two stories connect. I can't actually place what the movie was about. It does portray the struggles of young India who wants to shatter the bounds placed by society on whether it is OK to have pre marital sex or if it is OK for a low cast and high cast boy and girl to be together. They try. They are happy momentarily. And then find their lives shattered. One due to society, but other just random chance. Both of them get over it and start a new life, leaving the old shackles behind.