Movie : Between Mountains
Director : Vineesha Arora Sarin
” I see trees of green
Red roses too
I see them bloom
For me and you
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world”
Louis Armstrong
Once Chandril Bhattacharya (songwriter, author, director) rightly pointed out that cinema must always be treated as a medium of art where money might assist the vision of a director but it can never assume control over the entire process. Vineesha Arora Sarin dexterously solidifies the notion through her movie ‘Between the mountains’. Seldom do we see something more beautifully shot with a phone. Each and every shot in the movie can be appreciated for a plethora of factors. Similarly they can be treated as individual shots describing the immensity of nature around mortals, the terrifying beauty of the mountains and the abyss around them, the tranquility of water, its devastating silence, the promises of eternity made by the sometimes reluctant yet punctual rays of the sun and the green around life signifying vigour and plenitude. Vineesha Arora Sarin tells us a story of perseverance surrounded by pain, hopelessness and despair. Yet we see so much beauty around the agony of the protagonist that we almost force him to recognise it sooner than later. We root for Johny Morris as we recognise something familiar in him, in the moments he feels he should give up and in the moments he decides to fight , live to see another day.
A bereaved man struggles to cope with the loss around him. Like the title , an oblivious man is stuck between mountains, staring at futility. The story is about the journey undertaken by the man to understand the meaning of life, to truly realise that beauty of the mountains (existence, being one with nature) around him, sights that escaped his glance before.
Two of the most important aspects of the movie are the background score and the Cinematography. The songs, the narration and the sound are appropriately used in order to amplify the significance of certain scenes and depictions. The picturesque locations add to the aesthetic profundity of the movie. The performances were impeccable as well. Amit Sarin specially in specific scenes (the scene where he is seen lying on the grass mourning) delivers a stellar performance. The dialogues and the monologues never lost their profundity while being lucid at the same point of time.
The movie would remind us of the poetic narratives of Terrence Malick like ‘The Tree of Life’ and ‘Knight of cups’.
‘Between Mountains’ is poetry in motion. A tale of hope present in the magnificent silence around us, a sense of togetherness in mortals because of the universality of loss. The mountains around us are not barriers of darkness but harbingers of light that would devour the agony in each and every individual and liberate him from the shackles of mental stupor. It would lead him towards eternal bliss.
