Director: Geethu Mohandas
Writer: Geethu Mohandas
Actors: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Geetanjali Thapa, Manya Gupta
Runtime: 1 h 44 min
Release Date: 18 January 2014
Genres: ROAD TRIP, Drama
Overview: The film follows Kamala, a young woman from Chitkul village and her girl child Manya, who embarks on a journey leaving their native land in search for her missing husband. Along this journey she encounters Nawazudin, a free spirited army deserter who helps them to get to their destination with his own selfish motive.

Rating

LIAR’S DICE

You must view Liar’s Dice, this Hindi road trip movie, on several different levels if you wish to enjoy/appreciate/make it to the end.

It is fascinating to watch a mother Kamala (Geetanjali Thapa), her 3-year old daughter Manya (Manya Gupta), and a pet goat travel from mountainous Chitkul in Northern India (Level 2 city – a better way to define the world as explained in the book, “Factfulness” by Hans Rosling – the concept of underdeveloped or Third World is outdated and leads to mis-perceptions) to Simla, India (a Level 3 economy) to New Delhi (Level 4, what the USA is) searching for her husband who was working in New Delhi but has been missing for 5-months. I included the concept of classifying cities from Level 1 – 4 based upon income as discussed in the book “Factfulness” as just one more way to appreciate this sometime hard to appreciate movie.

Along the trek they are helped by a man Nawazuddin (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), a man that appears to have some secrets or problems but for some reason helps them. Sure, he is helping but he is never nice. Throughout the entire movie there is never a thank you, never a nicety, or a polite thing said. The dialogue is almost all commands, eat, walk, stay (kjaana kha lo – tahallo – rahana, in Hindi, the language spoken in the movie).

The settings from mountains to city are always changing since it is a road trip movie (walking, jeep, bus, train, bicycle cart) with a lot of scenes shot with a hand-held camera.

There is some tension waiting for things to explode, where is that husband? Long stretches of quiet.

When in New Delhi, the movie is set in the poorer areas of the city and the movie does not hide any of the homeless problems – I hope they over exaggerated the mean spirited people.

At the long-awaited, but abrupt ending the following was shown,

“This film is dedicated for the vast multitude of nameless people who are recognized only as a mere statistic…”

Then Liar’s Dice this Hindi movie, suddenly becomes a very sad movie showing the world to be a ruthless place for the poor – this woman is lost.

The Biggest Spoiler: The Ending

They make it to New Delhi and she calls the husband’s phone again, but hears it ringing in the “guy’s” bag. She goes through the bag and finds the husband’s cell phone, wallet and watch. She breaks down on the street in a great crying, drooling scene. They then show the guy working at a construction site, then a cut back to the original village that goes out of focus. Wiki says she is also working at the construction site but that is difficult to see. The husband died on the construction site and the company hide it from the wife. Not clear how the guy got involved and why he had the husband’s stuff, maybe to trap her into working and taking the husband’s place (?). To me it meant she is stuck living on the streets of New Delhi since she is poor and broke; she received no justice or assistance for her husband’s death, she is just another nameless person.

Movie Details

Director: Geethu Mohandas
Writer: Geethu Mohandas
Actors: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Geetanjali Thapa, Manya Gupta
Runtime: 1 h 44 min
Release Date: 18 January 2014
Genres: ROAD TRIP, Drama
Overview: The film follows Kamala, a young woman from Chitkul village and her girl child Manya, who embarks on a journey leaving their native land in search for her missing husband. Along this journey she encounters Nawazudin, a free spirited army deserter who helps them to get to their destination with his own selfish motive.

LIAR’S DICE

Movie Details

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