Buddha.mov

Indian auteur Ashim Ahluwalia’s protégée and frontrunner of a new wave of Indian filmmakers, Kabir Mehta moves into long-form storytelling after the international success of his short film "Sadhu in Bombay", which had its North American premiere at the Slamdance Film Festival. The Mumbai based director impresses with his vanguardism in a debut that is hard to label or classify.

Documentary turned fiction turned cross media project turned social experiment, "Buddha.mov" follows the life of Buddhadev Mangaldas, a cocksure 29 years old cricketer who plays for Goa. What initially seems to be a classical unidirectional observational documentary of a successful sportsman, quickly shifts into a more interactive piece when the cheerful and at times gullible protagonist of the film begins to linger with the camera, increasingly giving in to his hedonistic ego and in doing so unveiling the most private parts of his eccentric life and multi-layered personality.

From racing in his sports car to having sex in public, Buddhadev does all he can to flaunt his celebrity status and director Mehta’s attentive and vitriolic camera indulges his every whim serving as the best partner to fulfil his lust for recognition. Nevertheless the film never takes a critical stand as the director is more interested in studying how the subject interacts with the perception of his own identity and the actions and measures the cricketer takes to match his imagery.

(Giampietro Balia)