A City of Contradicting Lives: Varanasi in 'Masaan' & 'Mukti Bhavan'

     

Some stories are so embedded in their geographic setting that they serve the bottomline of the narrative and capture the nuances of culture and social life. Mukti Bhavan (2016) and Masaan (2015) are two acclaimed indie films that not just feature, but are rooted in the soul of Varanasi, the "spiritual" city. The cultural and social elements of the city of Varanasi cannot be pulled apart from the narrative of either film. Yet interestingly, the portrayal of the same city happens to have a contradictory face and guise.

Mukti Bhavan (Hotel Salvation) opens up to the scary ambiguous dream of Daya, an elderly person in his 80s. He appears convinced that his days are about to end, and hence shares his adamance about spending his last days in Varanasi. The purpose of Daya’s visit is to breathe his last at the holy banks and attain salvation. He is accompanied by his dutiful son, Rajiv, who is getting overwhelmed by his work load. The film, directed by debutant Shubhashish Bhutiani, soulfully portrays a father-son relationship that gets better with time, as they sort out the subtle discrepancies between themselves.

Masaan (Crematorium), the debut film of Neeraj Ghaywan, is a poignant ode to the loss of loved ones in life. In its hyper-linked narrative, Masaan portrays and switches between the lives of two unrelated central characters, namely, Devi and Deepak, residing in Varanasi. Both of them are subjected to extreme grief and are in their pursuit of "surviving life". Apart from Varanasi being their geographic setting, both Masaan and Mukti Bhavan are eloquent about the underlying sense of loss that is associated with human lives. The nuances of relationships are beautifully captured so that they appear emotionally appealing.

Beyond the obvious as well as subtle resemblance in setting and emotion, there seems to be a compelling contradiction in the portrayal of Varanasi in both films, which reveals much about the perspectives of human conditions. And those contradictions should be addressed by combining class, caste, and gender perspectives.

The duo of father and son (in Mukti Bhavan) come as visitors to the city. Varanasi is seen by them in its holy attire, boasted with "Ram" chanting to present us with the "obvious" spiritual heritage, whereas the central characters in Masaan are natives who are brought up there in accordance with the existing social norms. Most of the time, their story world lacks this "holiness," and both central characters are dealing with conflicting social realities. Devi (in Masaan) is put into extreme agony by the death of her lover, who committed suicide when both were caught by police on a morality raid at a hotel. She gets harassed as society understands premarital sex as a bigger curse. Devi even remarks, 'the smaller the city, the narrower the world view'—justifying her choice of getting employed somewhere out of her hometown.

The central characters in Mukti Bhavan seem to belong to the middle class and a "relatively" higher caste. Visiting Varanasi happens to be a spiritual vacation for them. Deepak (in Masaan) belongs to the Dom community, who are entitled to do the cremation of dead bodies at the ghats. The ghats never provided him with spiritual relaxation. Instead, his "lower" caste identity brings hardship, transforming his routine life into a struggle for survival. Masaan would probably be the first film to represent the lives of the Dom community. The life of Devi, despite the privilege of caste, is never spared from hardships as class and gender hindrances are embedded within social morality. 

Let’s say the central characters of both Masaan and Mukti Bhavan were in Varanasi on the same day. They might have even passed each other without recognising each other. Yet their lives, challenges, pain, aspirations, and destiny are never the same. There exists a contradiction between salvation and existence, revealing the graded social inequality. 

With time, the characters of Mukti Bhavan develop a better rapport and understanding. The spiritual surroundings host their re-connection, and a feeling of contentment resonates within them eventually. They may even revisit the city to be in a state of peace and spiritually relieved. Though the loss of father puts the family into grief, they tend to understand it as a natural evolution associated with life. On the contrary, deaths in Masaan are unexpected and characters seem imprisoned by their grief. Whether it be Devi or Deepak, they seem disappointed and seek a way out of Varanasi.

The characters in Mukti Bhavan are in virtue of salvation and spirituality, while the people of Masaan are in virtue of survival and existence. As mentioned earlier, both the films are eloquent about the nuances of human relationships. But Masaan holds a marginalised perspective to reveal the dust behind divinity.