Goldfish is an emotional rollercoaster by Pushan Kripalani that focuses on human relationships. This film, in an exceptional way, depicts the complicated intricacies between the characters played by Deepti Naval as a mother with dementia and Kalki Koechlin who still harbors anger towards her. Taking place amid heightened emotions and tensions, the movie examines their symbiotic bond through their battles against dementia. Such a narrative provides an accurate representation of struggle within such engagements.
Execution and Direction
The film is painfully slow, whereby sometimes one may think it is leading to something interesting only to be let down at the end. However, what makes it even worse is that its plot tends to be half-baked while its director chose not to explore humans’ mind depths purposely.
Strengths and Weaknesses
What makes this film strong are its true-to-life aspects. The settings, dialogues, and situations all add up to a genuine atmosphere one can easily relate with in his or her life. In addition, the involvement of neighborhoods in providing care for her mother enhances the theme of community support during difficult times. These added dimensions evoke warmth in the story which emphasizes upon empathy and humanness.
However, despite strong performances and authentic atmosphere; there are certain shortcomings concerning overall direction and writing of this film. True enough; it does bring out well complexities associated with dementia in terms of handling ones parent but ultimately seeming to lack much coherent plot. At some point, there was no clear central message or conclusive arc since narrative appeared disjointed at times. From time to time, these flashbacks into past traumas coupled with justifications from mothers about why they did what they did tend to take away from main idea making them underdeveloped.
Performances
Undoubtedly Kalki Koechlin and Deepti Naval’s performances are the backbone of the film. Both their characters come to life with heartfelt portrayals in this thoughtful movie. Kalki as a character manages to perfectly bring out the complexities of her inner thoughts while Deepti’s depiction of a woman struggling with memory loss is both commendable and realistic. Laxmi being played by Bharti Patel also adds depth to the story that makes characters’ interactions look real.
Goldfish Review: Overall Impact
Goldfish is an art-house feature film which explores one aspect of human relationships that is often unspoken about. The acting in Goldfish is heart-wrenching and performed at its best by Kalki Koechlin, Deepti Naval, and Bharti Patel. Moreover; it adds more meaning into the narrative when the mother has dementia while her daughter struggles internally with unresolved issues about their relationship. However, there is some doubt regarding its direction as well as writing because plot lacks coherence or message that can be sent through it clearly. In its execution, Goldfish does make a sincere attempt to capture all aspects involved in complex family dynamics but falls short sometimes.
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