Movie Review: Eeb Allay Ooo! (Hindi)

A biting satire on unemployment and a film about migrant life in Delhi, director Prateek Vats' excellent Eeb Allay Ooo! is a haunting socio-political allegory of the times we live in. Saumyananda Sahi's lenswork lends the film a hyperrealistic quality, but the story couldn't have been more fantastic: A young outsider living in the outskirts (played by a charming Shardul Bhardwaj) lands a contractual job of a monkey repeller in the Indian capital, but try as he may, he can neither make the sounds to shoo them away ("eeb," "allay" and "ooo") convincing nor does he seem to have his heart set on it. That he is named Anjani is no coincidence. He is too soft a guy to scare the scampering primates thronging the government buildings. But with his pregnant elder sister and security guard brother-in-law struggling to make ends meet, he realises people in their situation may not have much of a choice after all. Thus what starts a muted comedy acquires darker hues, even as it devolves into a surreal farce, painting a harrowing picture of class divide and religious fervour, and exploring a climate of heightened nationalism and hopelessness where human lives are dispensable and routinely dehumanised while animals are exalted to the status of gods. Seen in that light, Anjani isn't so unlike the thousands of faceless men and women who come to Indian cities in search of work and sustenance only to lose their dignity and identity, and get lost in the fringes. A non-judgemental examination of a hard-hitting social tragedy that blurs the line between a man and beast, Eeb Allay Ooo! is essential viewing.