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<\/picture><\/div>\nOur society has yet to come to terms with the sad reality that sexual exploitation is not gender-specific. Perhaps that\u2019s why our mainstream cinema either ignores the sexual manipulation of boys or considers it as a device to generate some humour. For a change, Pushtaini<\/i>, a small film with a big purpose, begins on a film set where a struggling actor, languishing on a couch, struggles with his lines.<\/p>\n
Like an emaciated cat trying to roar like a tiger, Aryan Shaw (Vinod Rawat) is fumbling to hide the simple mountain boy Bhupinder or Bhuppi from the camera. Soon, we discover that his set is perhaps purposefully designed into the script as his launchpad, for Bhuppi has come through a painful process of \u2018casting couch,\u2019 a euphemism for sexual favours in exchange for work.<\/p>\n
The slimy line producer has a video that can shut Bhuppi\u2019s career down but somehow the frustration of getting blackmailed breeds in him the natural flair that was missing from his performance. It is something Rajkumar Rao, playing hero in the film within the film, advises him to bring out but till then Aryan and Bhuppi were two different people.<\/p>\n
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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nTo escape the trap, Bhuppi treads back to his ancestral land in Uttarakhand and the scenic vistas open the crevices of the past in the young man\u2019s mind that made him run away from his reality to the city of dreams. As the purpose of the title starts to make sense, we find that Bhuppi is suffering from daddy issues which feel far deeper than we encountered in Animal<\/i>. There is a sister who feels that he let the family down and an aunt who holds him responsible for his father\u2019s unnatural demise. Then there is a will that is in the hands of his father\u2019s employer Yashpal (Mithilesh Pandey) whom Bhuppi doesn\u2019t want to face because of a childhood trauma that hasn\u2019t healed and perhaps created flaws in his personality. It creates an emotional cesspool where the soundscape and the landscape become integral to storytelling.<\/p>\n Director<\/b>: Vinod Rawat<\/p>\n Cast<\/b>: Vinod Rawat, Rita Heer, Hemant Pandey, Mithlesh Pandey<\/p>\n Runtime<\/b>: 90 minutes<\/p>\n Storyline<\/b>: When a struggling actor is forced to return to his home to confront his past, the journey springs surprises and nightmares.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In the journey to find his truth, Bhuppi finds a co-passenger in Dimple, a life coach (Rita Heer), who is also seeking answers to questions that have been troubling her since childhood. While Bhuppi avoids intoxication, for it takes off the layers that he has covered himself with, Dimple is into weed and vodka to keep moving against the gravity of the situation and landscape.<\/p>\n The film finds its humour and levity with Hemant (Hemant Pandey), a taxi driver and Bhuppi\u2019s childhood friend, who drives him and Dimple on this journey of self-discovery. Hemant is a prototype of those small-town men who judge women by their food and lifestyle choices.<\/p>\n Rawat has not only played Bhuppi\/Aryan with gentle intensity but has also directed, produced, and co-written Pushtaini<\/i>. While finding answers to Bhuppi\u2019s quest, he touches upon issues of unemployment, migration, and economic hardships in the hills making people prone to manipulation of different kinds without making a show of it.<\/p>\n Like his property, Bhuppi\u2019s problem is also \u2018Pushtaini.\u2019 People on the margins faced and hid sexual exploitation then; they are uneasy to talk about it now. Time and space don\u2019t seem to matter. They seem destined to suffer and move on with a straight face. Rawat has depicted this helplessness and reconfiguration in Bhuppi by weaving the events into a gripping narrative that doesn\u2019t seek mercy for being an independent film.<\/p>\n In terms of technique, for a large part, Pushtaini <\/i>gives the feel of a good, personal student film. It has a beating heart but the loose ends in writing and acting have not been properly soldered. At times, the rawness in expressing emotions and language works to the film\u2019s advantage but then there are sequences where low-hanging metaphors are plucked for effect.<\/p>\n That said, Pushtaini <\/i>is better than many decorative products on display in theatres at present. One hopes it finds a way through the heartless distribution system that is skewed towards tentpoles and where ancestral hold on the system still works.<\/p>\n Pushtaini is currently running in theatres<\/i><\/p>\nPushtaini (Hindi)<\/h5>\n
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