Presented by the Palo Alto International Film Festival, the first international showing of Prashant Nair’s Delhi in a Day offers visually stunning shots of Delhi, light humor and a strong message, yet fundamentally lacks a reasoned closure.
Nair discusses the genre and style of his film.
“Bollywood and international cinema are two different worlds,” Nair said. “I wanted to settle somewhere in between so Indians would like it, but not in a three hour long format with songs.”
The acting in Delhi in a Day is reminiscent of the obvious, cheery delivery in Bollywood movies, although the cast members are known as serious actors in India, according to Nair.
The basic plot seems simple enough — a young British man (played by Lee Williams) visits the Delhi home of his father’s business partner where he loses his entire life savings. The matron of the household, Kalpana (Lillete Dubey), immediately suspects her staff as the culprits and gives them 24 hours to return the money. The film, however, is laced with detailed cultural intricacies. The PAIFF brochure describes the movie as a “darkly comedic portrayal of upper-class Delhi society,” in the context of the home.
“My inspiration for this story was the relationship between the emerging rich class and people who work for them,” Nair said. “It’s a huge issue because there are no rules. I wanted to portray a realistic scenario with realistic characters as they are.”
Nair went further to explain that the inequality in wealth is extremely present and an accepted reality of Indian society today.
Nair’s portrayal of this subject matter may concern some audiences in that it is perhaps not a realistic depiction of the difference in classes. In the film, the servants show a higher level of moral integrity than the members of the household. When Kalpana learns that none of her staff has stolen the money, she does not acquit them of the blame and pledges to call the police at the end of the 24 hour period in a carefree manner.
“The idea was to portray the helplessness of them [the servants],” Nair explains.
Another problem with this scene is that it does not explain Kalpana’s motives and serves as an abrupt conclusion to the film. Nair leaves the conflict of the movie somewhat unresolved.
These issues are balanced by the picturesque scenery and cityscapes in the opening of the film, dabbles of comedic moments and a score that complimented the action of the movie in a delicate way.
Prior to this project, Nair worked in social media for ten years before taking film classes at New York University. Overall, Delhi in a Day, Nair’s first full-length feature, demonstrates great promise for his future career.