Explaining Mise En Scène of 'Meri pyaari Bindu'

Name: Meri pyaari Bindu

Directed by: Akshay Roy

Scene 1 (Starting scene before the intro)

Scene duration: 00:42 - 02:04

Scene brief: Scene starts with the narration of Abhimanyu Roy describing the surrounding atmosphere (an old man listening to the radio, Tired kids playing football, a quiet evening) people indulged in their usual evening activities. Suddenly there is a loud sound of drums being played nearby and then there is giant idol of Durga maa being carried by a helicopter. People leave their activities and gets distracted towards the giant idol in the sky and then a guy is shown standing on the edge of his terrace about to jump from there.

Mise En Scène of the scene: During the entire scene apart from Abhimanyu’s narration the dominant feature on the screen is the typewriter writing the story which Abhimanyu is narrating. The dominant colour throughout the scene which leads to the scene where Abhimanyu is standing on the edge of the terrace is Red which somehow builds up the anger and shows the dangerous situation the scene carries. Throughout the entire scene heavy use of primary RGB colours is still visible. Red and green in the scene is complementing each other Abhi wearing blue does not compliment red or green, which somewhere signifies he could not blend with the surrounding and clearly doesn’t belong there. High key lighting is used during the entire scene, whole scene features bright even illumination and very less shadows which shows the action being taken by protagonist in a positive light and makes it light hearted even when the protagonist taking a seriously concerning step. Director has used deep focus while filming the scene all the planes during the entire scene are in the focus, also the screen density is perfectly balanced not too much or not too less things are packed in one shot. Different types of shot has been used during the entire scene but mostly wide angle has been used to show the different activities of the people, and tight close up shots of typewriter is take. During the scene when Abhimanyu throws himself from the building it is an eye level shot, and it is timed perfectly for Abhimanyu and Durga idol to coincide with each other which somehow shows at one side during Durga visarjan the idol will drown in the water and it’ll be the end of it and similarly on the other side Abhimanyu will fall and that’s the end of him which means at that moment two endings are gonna take place. Audio plays a very significant role during the scene, the narration of Abhimanyu, sound of the helicopters, sound of drums playing and drums starts slows and then it intensifies and during the jumping scene all these diegetic audio plays a very important role in building the narrative. At the end of the jumping scene for last few seconds, if you listen closely you can listen some non-diegetic audio in the background which is used very intelligently and blends easily with other sounds in the background and helps in intensifying that particular scene.

Scene 2

Scene duration: 13:56 - 19:45

Scene brief: Abhimanyu is sitting on his work desk, lost in his thoughts, smoking a cigarette and then looks at the room of Bindu and observes that the light of the room is on. So, he climbed the tree which connected his room to hers and went into that room and found the old cassettes, tape recorder and some more memories related to them. He brought all of that to his room started working again while going through all that stuff.

Mise En Scène of the scene: In this scene there are many transitions in colour scheme to convey different mood and emotions. During the time when he’s frustrated and trying to focus and I sitting in his room all by himself, everything is so gloomy and grey. Focus is on Abhimanyu during the entire scenario to highlight him in the faded scenario, he’s been shown wearing a bright yet soft colour, Pink. In the shot when he looks outside his room you can clearly see that it’s not dark outside it’s the mid-evening time time yet it’s so dark inside his room that’s also because of the tint of blue in that colour palette. When he climbs up that tree it’s like he’s reaching out for warmth from that cold dark room and when he enters Bindu’s old room, it’s has that old yellow light in it due to which everything in there looks yellow and warm even Abhimanyu himself the pink colour of his kurta fades away and turns yellow and it looks like he’s also a major part of that room, he looks just like everything else in there. When he brings back in old footage and watches it in his dark room there are two types of lighting styles working on the screen, on one side he’s sitting in his dark empty room watching old footage of Bindu where low key lighting has been used and on the other side the old footage is shown grainy to give them vintage effect, to show Bindu as joyful person high-key lighting has been used. Colous and lighting very effectively conveys the change of mood and feelings felt by protagonist very sharply. The Room setting is very accurate, the old fashioned chair, doors, windows, curtains, lamps really takes you back in the time. Even in Bindu’s room all those dusty covers and tainted walls gives you the feeling that the room has not been used from a long time but those old cassettes, cycle, music player hasn’t lost their emotional value. Audio in the scene goes perfectly with the visual, by just hearing “Abhi na jao chhodkar…” Abhimanyu’s emotions gets triggered both diegetic and non diegetic audio provide you a soothingly warm experience and makes you smile.

During the entire scene and the flashback, Bindu is shown laughing and enjoying life wearing bright colours like Yellow, blue, pink, etc. The shots taken here are pretty simple but very effective. Mostly there are mid shots of Abhimanyu, wide shots of him sitting in his room, mid shots of Bindu enjoying life and at that time when Abhimanyu is talking to Bindu’s Father from the tree High and low angle is used to show the conversation.

All these, costume, music, lighting, setting successfully conveys the message that Bindu was Abhimanyu’s ray of light even in his darkest times.

Overall Mise En Scène of the scene of the Film

This film is an emotional journey from puerileness to maturity. Cinematography of the movie is absolutely brilliant; use of lights and shadows is clearly visible and gives a different angle and touch to the film. Use of colour tones to represent different mood and emotions is used throughout the entire movie, yellow colour for warmth and feeling of belonging and blue colour to show the cold nature of the scene is used from the starting till the end of the film. Costumes play an important role in the film, you can observe the dressing sense of different people according to the place they are located, For Eg: As the scenes are mostly based in Kolkata, you can see people wearing clothes according to Bengali tradition, when Bindu was in Australia, Paris the clothing changed accordingly, when they were in Mumbai Abhimanyu used to wear T-shirts and shorts at home and when he is living in Kolkata he’s shown wearing kurta-pajama. Throughout the entire movie Abhimanyu is mostly seen wearing darker shades especially after his love life took a unexpected negative turn, and Bindu is shown wearing bright and vibrant colours almost throughout the entire film which symbolizes the fact that she was like a bright ray of sunshine in Abhimanyu’s life. The set designing was apt according to the requirement of every scene. They successfully recreated the era of 90’s with the old Ambassador cars, walkman, cassettes, trams which used to run in the city of Kolkata during those days. There are none extra shots which were not needed for a scene, they have just used the perfect amount of cuts during a scene, which keeps the film going, makes it gripping. Audio has played a very important role in this film whether it’s the narration by Abhimanyu or Bindu’s singing or the soothing background music which suddenly turns to intense music. The songs used in the movie changes changes according to the mood of the film whether it’s the fun party scene in the movie shown by the song “Ye jawaani teri” or Abhimanyu confessing his love by “Haareya” or letting your love go away beautifully told by the song “Maana ki hum yaar nahi” The songs are as soulful and fun as the movie.