RAVI JOGHEE

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm7116288/bio/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm

DEAR THIEF – a post-mortem
-By an Invisible Soul

Two weeks went by, and I could not stop thinking about that one film that I was fortunate enough to watch in the wonderful ‘Go Short International Film Festival’. A simple film, which might have missed catching a critique’s eye, Dear Thief, by an unknown Director, Ravi Joghee - incidentally, he is also the Writer, Cinematographer, Editor, Animator, Drone Pilot, Audio Mixer and what not!!! – caught me off-guard.

The film- a mid-length film which is about 35 minutes long- holds you tight from the beginning to end. If anyone misses the opening statement or the end statement, then they would miss a world of information about this strangely curious film.

On the outset, the film presents the all-familiar look of a normal commercial film from Hollywood with Asia-specific sentiments. By being set in Europe, it sometimes feels non-aligned with the so-called European way, as well. But as the film nears the end, it throws that feeling to the graves and wakes you up, if my stomach-churning is, by any means, an indication of my feeling.
Can those seemingly innocent paintings coming alive to take us to a different world be true? Can those mundane expressions of love be so naïve and yet be classic as well? Can a thief’s explanation of a thief be universe-consuming? Can those five-layers of different stories be effortlessly stitched together?

Wait!!! Did I say Five layers of stories???!!! I see only Three…and then where are the other Two?

I would say every story told in the film is so visible yet so invisible. The Director made it a point not to stick them out of his narration of a simple love story. Ooh…did I say a Love Story? Maybe or maybe not. I could not categorize it that way. Even though, the director in his synopsis uses this term to give us an outline, he did keep a hook or a series of hooks, in that synopsis.

Coming back to the Two hidden of stories, I would say that one is about the expression of love. How do people express love, if they are given a choice of just 4 letters only? Think of anything, you might. But not the one that is being used in this film. Because those words are the most feared words and especially, the use of two words by the lead character is the most un-thinkable and most hated words that dance and sit so prettily in the film, yet giving us a comfort watching them unfold. And it actually conveys the lead character’s past with a term that the whole world is so familiar with its association. How many people can notice it…? I am wondering!

And then there is another character, with a story, that enters in four different places in the film. So tiny yet so powerful. The character definitely conveys a popular message associated with its appearance anywhere. And this character pops in exactly at places when something bad is happening in the story. I can elaborate a lot about this tiny character but it will take the charm away from actually watching the story, once again. I actually met the Director after the screening and I realized that he is fond of some brilliant South-Korean movies, as well. He even said, “Watch ‘My Sassy Girl’ and do you see anything beyond in the film’s commercial story?”.

Moving out of the sweet little hidden stories and looking at the story as a whole, it is a story full of ironies, eye-openers, satires and what not!?

The story begins right from its opening statement and travels smoothly through three establishing sequences– film lovers might call them as ‘commercial’- before it touches the soul of the film. I agree. But miss not that these three ‘so-called-commercial’ sequences are there for nothing. Each one actually conveys an ironic statement of this world, if not more!

While the first one is being conveyed by a dog’s whining- I heard people laughed out loud at it in the screening– it is actually a political statement and a strong solution to the problem that is bothering the constitutional heads of a country- which is supposedly the leader of this world- and laughs at the crisis or non-crisis, I would say. Take a look at it, my lord!

The second one is conveyed by another petty thief in a short two letter word which might pass-on as nothing or just as a nonsensical quote. The seemingly commercial setting of this sequence will not let you pay attention to it, as well. But it raises a kind of psychological question of “Who is Real?”. Now hear that shortest communication between the lead girl and the petty thief and you will realize that nothing is happening for nothing. A well-defined interaction.

A third sequence is stupidly constituted around a stupid situation that emerges later to raise a question of what constitutes a stupidity. It is raised through a victim and leaves the answer to the viewer’s guessing. The guessing here has to go beyond the situation in the story and it has to travel around the world to find a solution to the economic and political destruction of innocent countries in the hands of the greedy nations.

And then, when we reach the final stages of the story, a chilling reminder from the lead character actually throws most of the men right through the holes of this demonized world to the bottom of the earth’s surface.

And then we hear a soul crying from that bottom of the bottoms, “I am a man, too”. That is the Director’s voice, I guess!