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Pihu (2018)
Imagine yourself waking up next to a mute body. You’re trying to take it in, the sunlight, the room, the objects around you slowly making sense.
Now imagine all of that again, only this time, you’re a 2 year old waking up next to your mom’s frame, and she wouldn’t wake.
Pihu is this darling little girl who turned two a day before she wakes up to this colorfull mess of a house. The aesthetics of the house talk on their own. You’re convinced with the scatter and chaos that something really bad happened after her birthday party.
The point of view of a kid makes you live the innocence and danger of being trapped alone in a house under no supervision. Kids are dependent on their mom or dad for everything. With her Dad out of town for a conference and a mute mother in the bed, Pihu doesn’t know what to do.
Pihu obviously tries to wake her mum, but she’s in deep slumber, her lips still blue of the pills that ended her life. She questionably observes the eerily silent house with worldly things unkept everywhere. But she is too little to gather any traces of the aftermath of domestic violence. So she sits there for a while, trying to wake her mom. A child that little doesn’t know death. Pihu thinks her mom is just sleeping.
The movie is carefully fractioned into the very basic instincts of an innocent child who is trapped in an urban duplex with noone to take care of her. The inadvertent booms of balloons popping in between sets the abstract brain of a child into action.
There are instances when your heart is in mouth when the 2 year old is exposed to all sorts of dangers in the house. Her hand doesn’t reach the door knob and she cannot manage an escape. The only safe place for her is near her mother.
You can see her struggle while she’s trying to brush her teeth, take a dump, scavenge for food and during these newly found adventures, she keeps talking to her sleeping mom. She gets spooked by many things that start to go wrong like the running water from the tap, her trapping herself inside the refrigerator and the blasting of the water geyeser. She runs screamingly to the mom and when mom doesn’t reply she cries for comfort. She cries and when she gets tired of crying she sleeps off.
The scene that aches me the most is her lying on her dead mom’s body for comfort. Even a dead mother can heal a child who is absolutely ignorant. A loss is not a loss until you reckon it. She peacefully dozes off on her mother’s body.
In the entire movie, you’d hear other people, her dad on the phone, the milkman, neighbour, but you won’t see their faces. Its intentionally done to maintain the point of view of the little girl who is trapped and could see noone but her mother. She even tries to reach out to her neighbouring friends, but to no avail. The modern day neighbors are private people who do not want to poke their nose or be disturbed.
The climax becomes nerve wrecking when she is exposed to the pills that supposedly took her mom. The dad is constantly trying to reach out to the Mom to inform that he forgot to turn off the electric iron. But the phone was vaguely answered by the gibberish kid until eventually, it runs out of battery.
The director chose to give a soft ending leaving room for imagination. It also makes us question a lot of things and presses on many unique problems in a modern day.
1. How domestic violence is still a concealed matter even in urban society
2. The apathy of neighbors in a fast moving social media age
3. The fragile relationship of couples
4. How well is a child prepared for unfortunate events and difficult situations
If you’re into unweaving a good quality cinema one thread at a time, then this 1.5 hours of watch will do you justice.
Pihu is undoubtedly a wonderful creation by Vinod Kapri. The idea of how a child thinks and acts if they’re trapped in a house is hauntingly intriguing. This well written thriller will consistently keep you on a cliff hanger. You are naturally protective of kids and are drawn towards their innocence. You would never wish something this dangerous happening to a child.
The role played by Pihu Myra Vishwakarma is incredibly cute and at its natural best. One can only imagine how difficult it must be to bring it flawlessly to a frame. Her laugh, her ignorance, her curiosity, her cries, her pain and mostly her pure innocence would bond you with her as if she was your own. And you cannot do anything to help but only watch her ascending towards these terrible threats lying everywhere in the house. A moment she is scared, another she is distracted, and another she is laughing and dancing. Its impossible to not fall in love with this character.
Sadly enough, Pihu is based on a true incident.
This is my recommendation for the weekend watch if your looking for something that puts your brain in a shockwave and also a reasonable escape from the cliches of Bollywood.