‘Serious Men’: More than just fun

There are those rare occasions when a viewer decides to revisit a film before the first watch comes to an end. Serious Men based on the novel by journalist-author Manu Joseph and helmed by Sudhir Mishra is one such film.

Funny and poignant in parts, the crisply edited satire with a running time of 114 minutes is held together by a fabulous performance from Nawazuddin Siddiqui, one of the most gifted modern-day actors who has established himself as a significant presence in OTT platforms (Sacred Games, Raat Akeli Hai).

In Serious Men, Nawaz is Ayyan Mani, a meek Tamil Dalit migrant working as an assistant to an arrogant Brahmin astrophysicist Arvind Acharya(Nassar) at the Indian Institute for Fundamental Research. Accustomed to humiliation from his boss whose area of research is the existence of microbes in the stratosphere, Ayyan lives in a chawl with his wife Oja (Indira Tiwari) and son Adi (Aakshath Das).

Ayyan seeks a better life for his son, a slow learner. What he does to find fame for the boy and its consequence form the crux of the story. The son, a naive victim of his father's plotting, plays along until the situation spirals out of control.

Serious Men, at one level, is a story of Ayyan’s dream of making his son famous, affluent, and sought after. Treading the path of amorality is the easiest route to take, which he does until his ambition hits the dust with a twist in a tale.

The film, at another level, is a reminder that casteism is a social evil that India has failed to get rid of. The issue of caste crops up during Adi’s school admission. It comes to light when a politician (Sanjay Narvekar) falls for spurious claims that Adi is a genius and tries to capitalise on it.

What is remarkable is that the film depicts these situations without a tinge of over-the-top melodrama. Siddiqui is perfect as the Everyman protagonist whose ancestors were manual scavengers accustomed to mistreatment at the hands of upper castes. Moderately educated, his methods to ensure a great future for his son seem destined to get exposed someday. Stepping into the shoes of this nuanced character, Nawaz is fabulous.

Young Das is a revelation. His sequences with Nawaz are hard to forget. In a sequence, he speaks on the stage before breaking down under the weight of psychological pressure. That is a special moment delivered with spontaneous ease, an indication that the actor can have a great future if he gets the right opportunities.

Everybody else in the cast fits the bill in a film that has a message for the modern-day society. As we watch it, it appears to tell us that satisfaction with what we have is what keeps us happiest. And a casteless society is what we need.