Goldfish is a moving story that sensitively examines a mother’s battle with dementia and her strained relationship with her daughter.
It is a realistic portrayal of life.Although it burns brightly, soot is always left behind.
The Pushan Kripalani film discusses this transience as it confronts the drawbacks of aging in which a person you love and detest progressively transforms into a total stranger.
Do you put the past behind her, watch her vegetate from afar, or assist her in coping with the vanishing memories?
When Anamika (Kalki Koechlin), who is in London, receives a crisis call from her mother Sadhana (Deepti Naval), she is put in an awkward situation.
The classical soprano is finding it to grasp the notes of her life as the dementia stages worsen.
As a safety net, amiable neighbors are present. Sadhana has won the affection of a local grocer (Rajit Kapur), which Anamika, also known as Miku to her mother, finds challenging to accept.
Additionally, a nurse (Bharti Patel) assists Sadhana in handling the problem while also juggling her own family’s issues.
Sadhana wants to remain where she is, but Anamika is thinking about placing her in a care facility and moving on with her life. The mother and daughter have unresolved business, and this is what keeps us interested.
Sadhana alternates between charming the audience with tales of her glory days and moping about how parenthood hindered her career. Additionally, Anamika has heart warts that occasionally protrude.
The best aspect is that, like life, the movie avoids making moral judgments. It doesn’t explicitly try to make the other character feel bad.
It also doesn’t aim to portray any of them as being selfish. In fact, as one watches Goldfish, one becomes less certain of the specifics of our daily lives.
Pushan considers the problem from the daughter’s perspective without emphasizing it. When dealing with those suffering from the crippling condition, the world offers practical remedies like moving Sadhana into a care facility.
However, as he progresses, he makes us fall in love with the situation’s and relationship’s in- betweenness.
Anamika uses a dark screen to correspond with her father while having a video conference with her frank boyfriend.
Similar to Sadhana’s use of wonderful Hindi words and phrases in the midst of conversational English that keeps the experience taut yet engaging, they initially feel dissonant or made-up but eventually become part of the rhythm of the picture.
The authors, Pushan and Arghya Lahiri, approach a weighty issue with humor while keeping Goldfish out of the shallow water.
Tapas Relia, a composer, offers an expressive musical tapestry that reflects Sadhana’s strong connection to Hindustani classical music and the connection between the two injured souls.
Rich vocals of Ustad Rashid Khan and Pratibha Singh Bagel occasionally portray the loneliness that Sadhana is experiencing in London and, at other times, humorously convey the unsaid in the music, which is drenched in nostalgia and classical melodies.
Finally, it is Deepti and Kalki’s moving performances that compel us to plunge into the tank and experience the turmoil.
The actors exposed the mother and daughter’s wounded spirits. Although they don’t care about vanity, they yet exude an innate grace that prevents the spectator from picking a side.
It is a difficult task, especially for Kalki, who frequently plays shattered but unfinished characters in mainstream media.
Anamika is simple to despise, yet Kalki does a fantastic job of dressing her. She is given a role supported by the author in this instance, and she handles it well.
She brings to life the complex character, who is struggling with her childhood memories, with her blank look and her fluctuating body language.
Goldfish stirs your conscience, so it’s not for people who prefer their entertainment spoon-fed; yet, by the time it’s over, you’ll feel tranquil like those two measured drops of elixir that keep Sadhana going.
