Serendipitous circumstances led to my watching Agneya Singh's M Cream at the Rhode Island International Film Festival where it won the Grand Prize for Best Feature Film in August this year. I had a personal stake in its success. I had taught English to Agneya in school, which fact is neither here nor there,except that when he ceased to be my student he became a good friend, and when he told me he was planning on making a film I was interested, to say the least. So I would like to warn my readers that anything I write here is bound to be heavily biased in favor of both the film and its creator.
Having said that, it was nevertheless with a teacher's typical feelings of hope and misgiving ,when her student goes up on the stage to perform,that I sat down,figuratively if not literally, on the edge of my seat to watch the film. Would the confident young man whom I had greeted so enthusiastically in the foyer of the auditorium be able to deliver the goods or would he belie the spark I thought I had glimpsed so long ago. Ten minutes into the movie and the suspense was over. I settled back with a sigh of relief knowing all was well.
From the opening scene itself in which Agneya appears in a blink and miss cameo ( next time we want to see more of you Agneya ) M Cream had me riveted! Here was cinema at its most restrained. No high drama,no earth shattering conflicts and no immediate resolutions sought, yet portraying all the angst and raw passion of the young with their feelings of rebellion, their need to break away,their search for a goal . I did not know from one moment to the other what was going to happen next as the four protagonists set out on their journey to the echo of ineffectual parental advice. "You have to stop running to find what you're really looking for"Figs' father yells out to him . Ah, but is anyone listening ? Of course not ! And the friends start out on their journey to the mountains in search of a rare hash,but encountering on the way such diverse characters with such diverse goals that their own perspectives change . Photographed in part by Agneya himself you see the magnificent Himalayas like never before in M Cream. Add to that the haunting background score and the result is pure magic!
Once again ,at the risk of sounding personal,I have to say that the film touched a chord. I grew up in the mountains so I know the breathless wonder of waking up to the sight of snow clad peaks, the helpless anger at seeing trees mercilessly cut down, the pain of the exiled Tibetan people. The appearance of the strident,pseudo activist on the screen holding forth in Public School English to an audience of bemused villagers was a dose of harsh reality and masterfully inserted, calculated to shock.
M Cream is about the new generation and the revolution it will bring about,yet has an ageless quality. All of us have belonged to a "new generation" at some point in our lives,have dreamt of changing the world, have struggled to free ourselves from the stereotypes that hold us in their death-like grip, have wanted to be on a continual High. Agneya Singh was all of twenty-three when he wrote and directed M Cream and to have achieved this sense of timelessness in his very first project, is indeed a mark of his genius! As is the sensitivity,rare in one so young,that he has displayed in the direction of the intimate scenes of the film.
In the final analysis is M Cream merely about the search for a mystical drug or is it about the ever changing object of our desires,which we pursue relentlessly and strive so hard in life to achieve ? And even after achieving it we know it's not the the end . The chase for the proverbial mirage continues.Figs and Jay stumble almost by chance on their goal but having reached their destination are left with the eternal question of Now What? It may have" been quite a journey, but is it over?"
You will have to see the film for yourself to figure that one out.