Masaan, tightly scripted by Varun Grover and deftly directed by Neeraj Ghaywan, won over Cannes earlier this year and has now wowed critics here. The title means cremation ground and the tale unfolds along the burning ghats of Varanasi.
At its centre are Devi (Richa Chaddha), a young woman setting out to explore her sexuality in a hypocritical society, and lower caste boy (Deepak Kaushal) who falls in love with upper caste girl Shaalu Gupta (Shweta Tripathi), the romance nurtured by Facebook and the cellphone. Critics have described it as a ‘poignant portrait of small-town India’, ‘dripping pain and poetry in equal measure’ and ‘an emotional journey’.
