Aligarh

Thursday night , on my late , late flight back from Delhi to Bombay, I spotted this young man sitting across the aisle who looked very familiar and who returned my rather hesitant smile with an easy , energetic charm. Again I noticed him next to me at the baggage conveyor belt waiting with a quiet energy . It hit me then who he was and I asked him if he were not that incredibly talented young actor I was sure he was ? I wished him well and all the best for I guessed he was in town for the premiere of his latest film . 

Then last night I saw the film. While every single frame of the film is crafted with a delicacy unseen of in recent times, a few scenes steep into your consciousness and stay there with a chilling disquiet . 

The ones that I still cannot get out of my mind's eye : the one where the young actor I met , grabs his female colleague ( not unwilling ) in a hungry, hurried and violent embrace , and they kiss and grope and feel each other furtively. This then is juxtaposed with an incredibly sensitive and gentle sequence where the lovers are both men , the kisses are gentle and caring and almost worshipping ; the fingers on the faces caressing and the faces themselves bathed in an emotion I have no words for. 

Take a bow , Hansal Mehta and Manoj Bajpayee , take another , Rajkummar Rao ( my co passenger ) and I do believe Aligarh is a once in a forever film .