What’s it like seeing Tees on its tehrvi

Watching Dibakar Banerjeersquos film Tees mdash which I think is a stellar piece if not a surefire masterpiece mdash feels a bit like public drinking in a prohibition stateIrsquom in a packed hall surrounded by eager younglings for an evening show at the India Film Projectrsquos fun fanmeet at Mehboob Studio in MumbaiOnly the picture is temporary lifting a ban on itself Nobodyrsquos watched its trailer stills or knows much about it Itrsquos not that the state has imposed this prohibitionItrsquos Netflix the producers that refused to platform its own movie after funding Dibakar and his castcrew to make what they wished coming ldquofrom a position of strengthrdquo Whyrsquod they do thatTees opens with the shot of a computergenerated pussycat negotiating on the phone with an Indian gigolo Anhad Shashank Arora who moonlights as a writer in the year 2042A book that you once spot in Delhibased Anhadrsquos bed is GyarahvinA Ke Ladke Boys from Std XIA mdash actually authored by Gaurav Solanki the cowriter of Tees imagining his character reading him in the futureAnhad has himself written a book titled Tees Itrsquos on the communal riots that took place in 2030 and that canrsquot see the light of day because the nightmare of censorship has descended on itFilmmaker Dibakar Banerjee PicGetty Images and Screenwriter Gaurav Solanki PicInstagramgauravsolanki__Much as the film named after it mdash although Irsquom hardly at a secret screening Technically Tees isnrsquot banned Treat it like drinking at a gymkhana on a dry day since the consumption is private As with film festivals in generalKeen on a writing career still the talented young man in Tees compiles a family cookbook that the state demands 72 cuts on Irsquom guessing readers of books have exponentially expanded in the future for the Indian state to care so much they donrsquot as much currentlyBut the movie isnrsquot merely a peek into what lies aheadWhich is anyway the weakest link since itrsquos the hardest thing to convincingly get right mdash whether about technology or politics We can barely grapple with whatrsquos going on being at the cusp of it in the present that feels like future every other dayThe screen simultaneously flits between two other timelines circa 1989 Kashmir and 2019 Mumbai with multiple characters and separate stories united by a common theme ie displacement and exclusionMust we delve deeper into these subjects NoA critical damage that I suspect the more intellectually inclined viewers do with lsquoword of mouthrsquo for movies mdash thatrsquos inherently a visceral and emotional medium mdash is academically examineruin them to a point that the recipient of their review is convinced the damn thing must be a debilitatingly dark artsy boreRecent case in point Neeraj Ghaywanrsquos thoroughly mainstream Homebound 2025Firstly at 120 minutes flat that couldrsquove even been longer Tees is a tightly entertainingengaging picture mdash from the carefully picked ambient sounds cinematographer Ranjan Palitrsquos visual palette to the seemingly specific backdrops and lots and lots of observational humourmdash toplined by finest actors bringing their AgameAs in the flawless Manisha Koirala 1989 ageing over time Huma Qureshi 2019 playing an overweight lesbian totally disregarding the male gaze indeed whatrsquos there ever not to love about Naseeruddin Shah even if in an extended cameo as a pottymouthed Man Friday in 2042Also DibakarGauravrsquos script isnrsquot so clever that you canrsquot figure whatrsquos going on mdash just clever enough that you feel rewarded as a viewer once the Easter eggs fall in the same basketThat is the moment you realise the timelines belong to members of the same family over three generations ldquoThis is a family filmrdquo as Gaurav calls it I agreeTherersquos so much at play you wanna watch it twice mdash once for the plot the second time on for the detailingStructurally the best Indian parallel to this scripting devise that I could think of is Anand Gandhirsquos stroke of brilliance Ship of Theseus 2012I asked Dibakar about this He kinda agreed Of course his Love Sex Aur Dhokha 2010 and its sequel 2024 simultaneously follow three storylines as wellSince Khosla Ka Ghosla 2006 Dibakar has directed 10 films if you count the shorts including the crackerjack zombie segment in Ghost Stories 2020 for Netflix that has been sitting on Tees edited during the pandemic for at least three yearsClearly no matter how accomplished a filmography the hustle never ends I ask Dibakar 56He says ldquoThose who have a music band and make films can tell you how it keeps them young Because yoursquore forever struggling Each time itrsquos Khosla Ka Ghosla all over againrdquoAn urge to express altogether anew being the agedefying nectar mdash perhaps the opposite of a mundanely repetitive dayjobThat said why would Netflix finance a brilliantly made film but keep it from its audience Ideally that canrsquot be a question for Dibakar but I pose it to him nonethelessHe says ldquoLet me give you an example You all have parents partners childrenhellip Sometimes when you try and talk to them they simply shut you off with the reaction lsquoWell you wonrsquot understandrsquordquoThatrsquos what he was kinda told I guess As I write this the next Hindi film release on Netflix is Single PapaMayank 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