'The Song of Scorpions' movie review: Can’t skip Irrfan’s swansong, no?

Movie name The Song of ScorpionsDirector Anup SinghActors Irrfan Golshifteh FarahaniThe rating in this review is missing As is the filmrsquos beyondbeloved star In a way that the latter makes the former redundant This is late Irrfanrsquos final film to release in Indian theatresAnd you might wanna go all the waymdashonly to watch the performer on a wide canvas of his own choice a wholly arthouse picture he wouldrsquove picked perhaps for a personal exploration Rather than usual pitfalls that is fame money etc That itself is rare for an actor Irrfan one neednrsquot emphasise was the rarestTherefore you catch him all the more casually emote with his eyes or deliver that slightly unexpected grinsmile a line thrown away with such swag that itrsquoll sound LOL funny even when itrsquos not Beyond all of the obvious above you observe him soaking in a moment over long passages of silence going with the flow or wind As against acting per seItrsquos this experiencing emotional truth as it were that Irrfanrsquos coactor Rasika Dugal told me she once felt with him during Anup Singhrsquos Qissa 2013 If Irsquom not mistaken he nodded at her knowingly Suggesting it is what it ismdasha very internal almost mediative moment Whether or not audiences always notice is another matterThe Song of Scorpions is the Europebased Singhrsquos second and final international production with Irrfan and his third featuremdashEkti Nodir Naam 2002 an ode to Ritwik Ghatak being his directorial debut For all the imageries allegories metaphormdashforemost these are films that draw you in deeply with visuals first and expect you to interact and simmer within the terrainspaces viscerally all throughThere are anyway few vistas as stunning as the vast sanddunes baking under hot sun merging with the horizon isnrsquot it Even though dunes are a relatively rare feature in Thar desertmdashsomething that disappoints you I guess when you first set foot in Rajasthan as a child assuming there will only be stretches of golden sands for as long as the eyes can seeThat doesnrsquot stop a film from recreating that dream for a drama off Jaisalmermdashmust be Sam or Khuri I suspect You see a peculiarly timeless village of tribals mostly women living with nature without taming it White scorpions crawl all over here stinging humans because thatrsquos in their fitrat characterThe way humans heal themselves is through a song There is an old woman Waheeda Rehman especially blessed with these seemingly magical powers Her granddaughter the filmrsquos female lead is also her mentee taking the sting off scorpionsrsquo bitesWhat if this young girl is stung by a human herself Thatrsquos at the core of this lyrical tragedy It is entirely her storymdashwhile you may have walked into the theatre for Irrfan He plays a camel trader instantly awestruck by the beauty of this woman who seemingly spurs his advancesIranian actor in exile the gorgeous Golshifteh Farahani is the leading ladymdash shedding herself almost entirely including naturally Persian intonation as much as she can to speak in a hardcore Rajasthani dialectFrankly you can wrap this picturersquos story into a single sentence But this is the sort of film that relies more on treatment and worldbuilding as opposed to characters with backstories or plot that constantly moves forward Making it a pic that if itrsquos not part of your palettemdashor you find it hard to buy intomdashyou will rightly assume it to be selfindulgent or pretentiousBut thatrsquos the leap of personal expressionimagination playing with form and narrative that Irrfan was fearlessly willing to back He was in that sense more than simply an actorItrsquos only after his death I figured from anecdotes how he would actively seek out even untested talentsmdashwhether writer Varun Grover for a K Asif biopic or comedian Gursimran Khamba that he was shooting a political series Gormint withThis filmrsquos director Singh once an assistant to Mani Kaul rightly sheds a light on this generously collaborativefacilitative aspect of Irrfan in his book Irrfan Dialogues with the Wind that I skimmed through after this film The Song of Scorpions premiegravered at Locarno film festival in 2017This is before Irrfan was detected with a rare type of cancer Sure his slow death sent admirersfans into collective shock and griefmdashmore than age for the stage in his career he was at right at the cusp of global greatness It also unwittingly brought him the widest halo that no mortal can planThe Songs of Scorpionsmdashthat opened on his third death anniversarymdashcould also be a full circle of sorts since a raw Irrfan in the hot rugged Rajasthan deserts is how the wider world first experienced him in Asif Kapadiarsquos international production The Warrior 2001 Which offered him in turn a better career in India after western appreciation first Hersquod been around in Bombay for years before thatIrrfanrsquos actorson Babil was there at a special screening of his fatherrsquos last release where I saw it He said probably his fatherrsquos words that if you devote yourself adequately to art it ensures you transcend life indeed death itselfAs it is I feel films like The Song of Scorpions belong more to galleriesmuseums With Irrfan itrsquos all the more an important artefact a collectible installation

'The Song of Scorpions' movie review: Can’t skip Irrfan’s swansong, no?

Movie name: The Song of Scorpions
Director: Anup Singh
Actors: Irrfan, Golshifteh Farahani

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Home / Entertainment / Bollywood News / Article / 'The Song of Scorpions' movie review: Can’t skip Irrfan’s swansong, no?

'The Song of Scorpions' movie review: Can’t skip Irrfan’s swansong, no?

Movie name: The Song of ScorpionsDirector: Anup SinghActors: Irrfan, Golshifteh Farahani

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Latest Photos

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Mid-Day Fast

Movie name: The Song of Scorpions
Director: Anup Singh
Actors: Irrfan, Golshifteh Farahani