Movie Review: Listen Amaya

I recently saw Listen Amaya, in my humble opinion a must watch. It is a quintessential small, cozy, bundled up in the joys of good acting cinema. In fact I call it cinema and not a film because very recently I was told by a writer that Cinema is a discipline. A film is too trivial a word to use for a piece of storytelling which is made from the soul. Hence, I choose to call Listen Amaya a piece of cinema. 

I am going to start with the highlights of the film. Farooq Sheikh and his sheer presence on the screen is overwhelming. He reminds me of my dad and other important people in my parent's lives who fill you up with warmth every time you meet them. They are your "go to" people outside your family and I have a fair few of these in my life. Needless to say I am talking about Farooq Sheikh and his character interchangeably because he becomes the character in every film that he does and this one is just the same. I don't even know if I can call his work great acting because it is as far away from being pretentious and being acted out as something can be

Deepti Naval steals the show with being just a mom. She is nothing more or less. There are hints of a "woman" that you see in the movie but those glimpses are always through the lens of her being a mom. She looks like she has lived and run "book a coffee" for years and actually has a relationship with all her clients and does see the world through their eyes 

The story of the busy bazaar and in short Old Delhi intricately woven into the lives of all characters and the soul of the film is endearing.

But the reason I will remember this film and I know it will become my "go to" film during loneliness is because it tells the story of every Mom and independent daughter. Every single scene b/w Deepti Naval and Amaya will take every girl who has been brought up to have a POV in life back to her youth. The reflected confidence of Amaya is clearly derived from the strength of her relationship with her Mom and whether we agree or not - it is the same for all of us. Every big fight with our respective moms troubles us for days and makes us listless as nothing else ever can. Our moms irrespective of how angry and disappointed they are with us will always care for our food and our happiness. And somehow they are absolutely devoid of ego when it comes to their daughters.

It is a movie which truly celebrates a mother daughter relationship in modern India and how our self esteem is driven by the strength of our relationship with our mom.