Yatra

Jaded Journey

At one point in Yatra, a novelist (Nana Patekar) gives a fiery speech against materialism and the devaluation of aesthetics in a consumer culture. Later a guest remarks, "Kya taliayan baji". To which Patekar replies, "Yehi toh afsos hai ki taliyan bajti hain". The puzzled man says, "Main samjha nahin". To which the novelist asks, "Main kya samjha?" Exactly!!

Yatra is a deliberately opaque, intermittently engaging statement on just about everything. Ghose sets up an interesting premise: a novelist embarks on a literal and metaphorical journey revisiting an earlier work and his muse, the courtesan Lajwanti, who is now Miss Liza dancing to cheap remixes. But from the corruption of art.

Ghose moves to call centres, cell phone sex and even commenting on vulture-like TV journos who will ask a bleeding man how he is feeling. Rekha's attempts to recreate the magic of Umrao jaan with her celebrated tawaif adaas and Khyaam's music seem jaded.

Yatra is tired and plodding, like a journey without a destination.

(Anupama Chopra for INDIA TODAY)