My AAMIS experience

There are a few films that even after you see them , they leave you pondering, as if you bring along a piece of the characters with you and “ #AAMIS” is one such movie for me and I could not stop myself from writing about it. It is not a typical review of the movie, but an expression of how I felt as a movie goer.

#Aamis starts with an ordinary premise of a girl meets boy romance, where love is exchanged between glances , unspoken yet felt. The background score , the locales all transport us to a world of love where the audience can sink in the love blooming between the two lead protagonists- Suman, a young PHD student & Nirmali,a married doctor with a pre-teen son, where emotions are flooding but kept restrained. 

No other film has spoken so beautifully about forbidden love in the parochial eyes of the society, as does Aamis. It reminds me slightly of a Bengali song once heard- “ Preme pora baron.” (It’s forbidden to fall in love.)The movie catapults into the use of metaphors of meat being used a metaphor for repressed desires, unchartered cravings and suppressed emotions. 

Some very powerful scenes from the movie gives a forewarning about the suspense to unfold , but this you realise only at the hindsight. One is such a conversation about an insect called - “ gandhipuk” or the dung beetle , which has a bodily fluid in it eating which makes one lose one’s senses for the next 48 hours, making the characters debate on whether it can be called a delicacy or a hallucinogen, or a hallucinogenic delicacy. Another line by Nirmali where she expresses to Suman - Moi tumar logot thakile akol mangkhoe khai bhal pau. ( I only love eating meat whenever I am with you ) very lucidly expresses the fact that meat eating is used as a metaphor for the exchange of love between the couple which restrains from any kind of physical contact . Another one is where she is seated in the dinner table along with her husband eating yam fritters and she suddenly rushes to the refrigerator to grab a chicken leg piece, unable to resist herself, as she is unable to hold herself falling for Suman , who is a breath of fresh air in her monotonous life,

However from this the film slowly delves into something never heard or experienced, as the film goes on to question about the taboos and predefined norms of the society. Some sequences from the films depict meat eating as an indulgent form of orgasmic pleasure, and the characters flaunt it best with their layered expressions. 

The movie reminded me once of Sriram Raghavan’s Andhadhun where the movie starts and end with the one-eyed rabbit. Here too the movie starts and end with one of the characters that seems insignificant but holds the key to the entire sequence of events. The best thing about the movie is its  final scene which left me almost teary eyed and choked.

Aamis makes one question everything that is considered normal as one of the characters himself said that “ the definition of normal varies from person to person and all depends on perception.”

An excellent movie made by Bhaskar Hazarika , and he has excelled himself over Kothanodi- another brilliant piece. Some wonderful performances by the cast, especially the lead pair- Arghyadeep Barua & Lima Das, where you feel that the actors are not acting their parts but living their characters, as if it is a page out of their lives. The city of Guwahati looks thriving and throbbing brought to life by excellent cinematography, as if the city is also a character of the movie. The amazing background score also changes its pace and tone , as does the movie post interval.

#Aamis is a must watch, not only because it is a well made Assamese film, that has won laurels, but the very fact that it is a novel initiative in the history of Indian cinema. If you love cinema, you shall definitely love AAMIS.