Audio-visual Analysis – “Fresh Suicide” (AnupamBarve)

                                                                                                                   RESHU AGARWAL

Has the world simply become a place where life and death is just a passing thing? Don’t we have any conscience while using somebody else’s misfortunes for our gains? The short film ‘Fresh Suicide’ is a short film that captures this reality of life today. As farmer’s suicides rise in India, a foreign photographer comes to cash in on the malady that befell the families struck by suicide with as little conscience as a person could have. Her assistant and translator, Anurag, is the main character here, who being a native goes through the dilemmas of sensitivity towards the aching families.

Scene Segmentation and Analysis

The film starts with a disembodied Marathi song in an extreme long shot showing a barren landscape with an SUV travelling along the road. This audio visual elements makes the viewer immediately realise that the context shown is in India, moreover that it is in a rural landscape of India, making it relevant in the wider mise-en-scene.

It is then that we are shown the passengers in the vehicle and that the song is actually from its radio. As we see the driver, Raja, and the foreign photographer, Nancy in the front of the car, the camera moves in to show us Anurag in the shotgun position between Raja and Nancy. Diegetic sound or sound from the scene is used, i.e. the radio song as well as the clicks of Anurag’s camera as he takes photographs. No conversations are ensued in the car; the camera simply shows us the three passengers. The car is shown driving into a hotel where a slightly low angle shot shows the grandeur of the hotel where they stay.

We then have a straight on shot parallel to Anurag who is seated on a couch with Nancy on another. The standard ‘reverse angle’ shot for conversations, is used here to depict their conversation along with the straight on shot.  The camera focuses on Anurag’s face as Nancy tells him to get a “fresh” suicide making him wonder what exactly she felt and had the first faint stirrings of doubt as to her lack of emotional connectivity to the farmers’ cases. We also in the same scene have a Point of View (POV) shot as Anurag looks at his research book containing the suicide news clippings that he had dug up, none of which were “fresh” enough for her.In the end, the music also plays on his feelings as he looks on at her. Natural lighting is only used in the form of sunlight streaming through the tall windows of the hotel room.

The next scene is also a shot where the hotel restaurant is shown with Nancy seated for lunch on the right hand side with Anurag walking towards her. The scene then moves in their conversation with the reverse angle shot where he finally manages to convince her to take up a suicide that happened not more than 8 days ago. The scene ends with them both getting seated for lunch. All the scenes effectively capture Anurag’s lack of affability with Nancy but also show his need to please her as his boss.

The next scene brings in a new character, Sanjay, who is Anurag’s local contact for getting news. He also travels with them. We see a range of shots here which show the conversations that go on between Anurag, Nancy and Sanjay. If we carefully analyse the conversation shots, each shot shows two people at once at various angles including the oblique angle. The three such shots are; one with Anurag and Nancy (oblique), second one with Sanjay and Nancy(straight shot) and also the third one with Sanjay and Raja, the driver, his face partially shown though he is not a participant in the conversation(oblique shot from driver’s window). Sanjay talks about the actual death of the farmer, and Anurag is suddenly shown to be uncomfortable with a slow music emphasizing the moment.

As they stop for a break, Sanjay opens up as to what he knew about the suicide. Anurag is now put into a dilemma. A lot of diegetic sound is used with wind and conversation sounds making it realistic. As they walk on towards the concerned place, a high angle long shot shows us the barren dry landscape, closing in on the three, as the camera pans with a dolly shot to track their walk as they talk. Though, Anurag talks about the etiquette issues of going there for photo shoot on an auspicious day, Nancy just considers it all the more better for her photo shoot.

A straight on long shot shows us a house with people moving in and around it, thereby marking it as their destination. The scene immediately shifts to an extreme close up shot of the deceased farmer’s elder brother wherein he talks about his brother and the malady as well as burdens that befell the whole family due to the mishap. Here we find the use of silhouetted logic on the extreme close up as he talks with the use of natural lighting falling into the room through the door leaving his face half in shadow.

A very interesting scene according to me is the next shot where all three, Sanjay, Anurag and the brother are shown in a straight shot but we can also see people sitting behind them. All these figures though visible are shadowed in a way that ensures that the conversation between the three characters is the only thing that grabs the attention of the viewer but at the same time depicting that people have come for the auspicious 10 day ritual.

As the elder brother consents for the shoot though he rejected the idea the first time, we see Anurag and Sanjay moving out of the dark room to join Nancy where the camera is placed behind them in the room. Another room is the location here where a medium high angled shot to show a silhouetted framed and garlanded photo of the deceased with a lamp in front of it. Anurag is shown as he enters into the room of the wife. The camera is purposely placed in a low angle from the left side of the room to capture the fact that he removed his footwear as a mark of respect and Nancy did not do so, once again reiterating her character.

This dark room with really low key lighting really captures the silence expected in the room as the widow sits staring blankly. Anurag feels highly uncomfortable and tries to make her understand the situation.Theonly illumination being the scanty sunlight falling through the rooftop as well as through the door, Anurag tries talking to the widow.There is an alternation of slightly high angled and low angled shots as Anurag gets seated beside the widow and Nancy instructs him respectively. A close up is used at the point when Anurag tells Nancy to “do whatever you want” showing his evident anger as he consequently walks out while Nancy continues her work unabashedly.

The next thing that we see is a high angled shot from above Anurag as he stares into the well in which the farmer had actually died. A low angled shot is also taken from within the well showing Anurag at the mouth of the well. All these emphasize his mind’s disturbance as well as the fact that the elder brother had hidden the fact that the farmer had committed suicide by jumping into the well based on some superstition. As the brother moves him away saying that they had rains that only qualified as “dog’s piss”, the scene shifts.

Anurag walks towards the car with the brother, preparing to leave. A POV shot is used as Raja explains Sanjay’s whereabouts. A soft sound track is played as he enters the car and the camera leaves along with him in the car leaving the poor farmers behind on the road looking on after them. Anurag’s sense of guilt at coming there increases. A Dutch angle shot from the passenger side front window captures the conversation between Nancy and Anurag as she admonishes him for his lack of help when she needed him. As she coolly and gaily attends another call, a stark attention is called to the fact that she has absolutely no qualms about what she did while Anurag wallows in guilt and stares out of the window.

The next relevant scene and shot is the one as Anurag has his shower. There is POV shot as the water comes out of the shower. There we see the use of close up shot as well as the tilting shot to capture his frame in the shower. Then we see the camera focusing on his hands as water flows in and through it. I think this scene has a lot of relevance to it because according to me it shows Anurag’s thinking that as he has enough water to let go through his hands, a “fresh” suicide had occurred because the farmers didn’t have enough water to survive. This is my favourite shot in terms of depth of narrative and emotional logics.

As the camera kept at the left hand side of the room captures his frustration, his pacing and his aggressive packing we are left doubting as to what is next course of action would be. Would he leave his job or would he stay on doing stuff against his values?

Finally, we see him walking to his boss’s door in the soft corridor lighting. As she opens her door, she is left in a shadow as seen from a POV shot from Anurag’s side. The use of dialogue here is memorable (“When are we leaving tomorrow?”). It means that he could not wait to get out of the place, but at the same time it shows that he has decided to stay on with his boss, at least for now.

Conclusion

Each of the audio visual elements used here are pivotal in shaping the sequence of the narrative. We can also say that this film has used the ‘syntagmatic’ approach to narrating the story wherein the there is a sequential development of the narrative plot. The dialogues and the style of delivery used are also highly relevant in definition of the characters. For example, we have Sanjay as well as Anurag talking in slightly broken and Indian English emphasizing their nationality as well as their lack of sophistication. All the lighting is used is natural and thereby really low key at times which also helps in dramatizing the moments of the film. The film also succeeds in capturing the differences in thinking of people and the rituals as well as beliefs that they hold on to in the rural areas which is nothing more than interesting trivia to Nancy. Thus, in totality the film is a study on differences in thought flows, ideologies and beliefs with the main focus on Anurag, who is pulled to think in both directions; one as an assistant and the other as just another traditionalMarathi guy.