FIRE IN THE MOUNTAINS (2019)

From India, Ajitpal Singh’s debut feature is fine, mysterious and unflinchingly cruel.  Set up north, with the Himalayas as magnificent backdrop, an unusual structure keeps changing its mind on tone and topic, but never loses your attention or its dramatic grip.  At first, we’re greeting tourists, fresh off the bus and getting the hard sell on lodgings from locals.  A bit of haggling before Chandra wins them over with her unbeatable mountain views, European-style toilets and cut-rate prices.  But it’s a hike to get there.  No road, only walking paths; a problem for Chandra whose son’s medical needs require thrice weekly visits for treatment.   She’s been saving to jumpstart a road project along with others in the area, and she’d have a chance if her government connection wasn’t also a business competitor.  But why bother since the boy is bound to get better thanks to her husband’s prayer offerings and religious advice from the local Guru.  Prayers & ill-fated business schemes all her husband seems to do while Chandra runs the lodge, cooks (for family & guests) and takes care of the animals.  (Except for that goat her husband gruesomely sacrifices to please the gods.)  Plus a very modern daughter busy making internet clips with her boyfriend, and her husband’s difficult widowed sister-in-law running off, so we’re barely shocked catching Chandra’s ‘crippled’ boy up & about when he’s not playing his part and being carried everywhere by his overworked mother.  (Would the boy’s act really be possible in such close quarters?)  Worse to come when the husband goes on a drunk, tears the place apart (seriously beats up Chandra) and finds those hidden savings.  Grim doings, yet the film, with its visual glories and vividly rendered characters & relationships feels revelatory rather than defeatist.  Ending with a lesson on how religious belief can be both deceptively and truly spawned at one and the same time.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY:  Not a young man, with only a few shorts behind him and now some tv directing gigs, someone as naturally gifted as Singh shouldn't become an opportunity missed.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  Lots of diegetic music & background chatter, including acres of political puffery on radio India touting all the advances under the current government.  Hilarious blather for easy populist consumption.  Is it real Party Line propaganda ordered by P.M. Nerendra Modi or OTT satire from Singh?