From New Delhi to Mumbai via Agra!

Therersquos a popular textbook term in collegiate economics called the Pareto point Roughly speaking itrsquos the point on the said Pareto curve on an XY axis where the quantity allocated by the buyer and seller of resources optimally meet There is zero wastageIn the sense that you go any further north or south of this point it would be a winlose or losewin for either partyIf I had to explain this through visuals it would have to be the incredible negotiation sequence in Kanu Behlrsquos film AgraWherein therersquos a guy with a house to sell to a developer who can then take over the property keep a floor or twofew along with cash and construct them a fivestorey building in returnThis brilliant giveandtake lsquobakchodirsquo with multiple cash floor permutation combination lasts for over 14 minutes for whatrsquos a twohour long film Is Behlrsquos Agra about a property deal NoAnd yes for how most conflicts can after all be reduced to the elemental level of jar wealth joru women zameen landproperty mdash or sex and money if you mayFilmmaker and screenwriter Kanu Behl PICGETTY IMAGESDuring teenage when I had the latter moment of epiphany about the world Irsquod regularly pull out the morning newspaper mdash at the time when they were consumed universally enough to be called a daily mdash and manage to slot all localnational headlines within a degree or two of separation as either the lsquosex problemrsquo or the lsquomoney problemrsquoWith his latest film mdash that premiered at Cannesrsquo Directorsrsquo Fortnight section 2023 set to open in Indian theatres November 14 mdash writerdirector Behl of course takes a more angular look at life as is in a small town within a fractured family mdash centred on a lonely introverted wholly hornedout bloke named Guru magnificent Mohit Agarwal perennially on sexchatporn when he isnrsquot grappling with mom dad cousin dadrsquos mistresshellipGurursquos lsquoASLrsquo Age 24 Sex Male Location AgraAs against that patiently unravelling negotiation sequence Behl starts his film off with startling the audience foremostThe screen opens to what seemed to me a painting like Dalirsquos The Persistence of Memory melting further still with a cacophony in gibberish for background soundldquoItrsquos a peek inside the mind of Guru where his secret life has wholly subsumed his private liferdquo Behl tells me for that screensaver type image which becomes the dissolve between several scenes so you also get some sorta breather as an audience throughout the filmThe first time on it leads to mad sex on a dining table with a roasted gilehrisquirrel gently budging on a plate Within a few minutes yoursquove witnessed two suicide attempts with phenyl and kerosene gas and a doctorrsquos face crushed with a squirrelrsquos cageItrsquos what Behl calls the ldquoinvocationrdquo or ldquoJai Mata Di momentrdquo so you start the proceedings forewarning viewers enough for whatrsquos to follow throwing them into the deepest end first The movie does get mellower once it settles into a robust rhythmAs an audience yoursquore totally in sync with it even when the madness sometimes seeps through your skinAt exactly the 59th minute midpoint the filmrsquos female lead naturally captivating Priyanka Bose limps her way into the screen Itrsquod appear the male protagonist has found his nest if not an outletBoth at it in bed look more like rabbits in heat rather than choreographed leads in a sensuously filmic scene Bose tells me ldquoWith an older woman and a younger man also the gaze feels reversedrdquoHaving announced his independence as an artiste with each film Agra is Behlrsquos third feature His debut Titli 2014 about carjackers in Delhi evidently emanated from a newspaper report Likewise Despatch 2024 was based on the murder of Mumbai crime journalist J DeyEqually engaging and disturbing Agra as it turns out came from a thought before its tough expression in wordsscreenThat idea Behl confesses being sexual repressionfrustration Hence you sense sex at the front back and centre of his film Even in songs that play from speakers as ambient soundTheyrsquore melancholic very rsquo90s type dardbhare Bollywood numbersFor in those tracks even in ghazals for that matter whatrsquos this longing for the beloved someone perhaps you havenrsquot even met mdash if not quite possibly articulation of incel infatuation No Aashiquirsquos Rahul Roy plays the dad in AgraBehl graduated in filmmaking from Kolkatarsquos SRFTII What does a film mean to him Irsquom keen to know He says ldquoItrsquos when you go beyond consuming story and characters and become one with yourself beforethe screenrdquoWondering about who his strongest influences could be as a filmmaker mdash while I was thinking along the lines of say Mike Leigh at that moment he had Paul Thomas Anderson in mind citing The Master Licorice PizzaIn Agra you navigate claustrophobic spaces that open into a city that could well be Banaras without a view of the ghats or Madurai without its templesJust as Agra the film is firstly shorn of the Taj Mahal mdash making it a story chiefly about anybody in any Indian townWhy call it Agra then ldquoPaagal khana mental asylumrdquo Behl quips Aha Also one that you arenrsquot looking into but feel like yoursquore viscerally inside it actually BravoMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass cultureHe tweets mayankw14 Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper