Genre: Drama
Duration: 93 minutes
It is underrated, low-budgeted and highlights the strength of collective solidarity as it encapsulates the bitter-sweet pain of the Partition era. Now as the world appears to be nearing an apocalypse, this movie on Netflix will inspire you emotionally and spiritually to not give up!
Mango Dreams is a film about a man’s last wishes as dementia starts taking over his life. He wants to walk down the memory lane and revisit some of the special places from his childhood, including the home he grew up in before his family was murdered.
The film starts with two young Sikh boys playing under a Mango tree. It then moves onto an older Dr Amit Singh played by Ram Gopal Bajaj, whose wife has passed away and his son lives abroad. Dr Singh is slowly losing his memory and his son, Abhi, returns and insists that Dr Singh move to the USA with him. But there is a slight problem of Dr. Singh not having a passport and therefore Abhi suggests he move to an old age home in the meantime.
Dr. Singh has another idea though. He wants to take one final journey and nothing is going to get in his way. He meets Salim, played by Pankaj Tripathi, a rickshaw driver whose son was saved thanks to Dr Singh. They start the journey together and during this time we see a relationship form between the two as they share stories and help each other find peace and happiness. Dr Singh finally manages to visit his old orphanage and the college where he trained to be a doctor.
Abhi has now managed to track him down and the final leg of the road trip sees them hit the India/Pakistan border. Dr Singh just wants to step over the border and visit his childhood home but with no passport this is impossible. What happens here? And will Dr Singh manage to make the last part of his journey?
Mango Dreams is spot on in showcasing the emotions of the story and the relationships between the characters and the audience. It starts out quite boring and jarring however, once the storyline picks up it will have locked you in your seats. The road trip could have been shot a lot better as the two characters take the journey from Gujarat to Punjab and the countryside landscape in reality itself of widespread agricultural fields and thatched roof huts could have been shot much more artistically as is often highlighted in Yash Raj or Imtiaz Ali movies.
However, one can forgive the director for lack of cinematography excellence and this can be especially forgiven thanks to the acting ability of Tripathi who has you laughing and crying along the way.
At this time of the pandemic when we need to show solidarity to each other and stregthen our collective spirits, Mango Dreams is a family drama highlighting the partition and problems between races in a very tactful and audience friendly way.
Catch the film now on Netflix.
