Cat sticks presents a unique take in a pretty saturated subject matter.
Set in rainy Kolkata, Cat Sticks is an independent film brought to you directly from the mind of the photographer turned director, Ronny Sen. The film tackles the topic of drug abuse, highlighting brown sugar as the poison of choice for the addicts of the city. Making the viewer a fly on the wall while several incidents occur over the period of one night. The film is shot entirely in black and white, which gives it a very distinct aesthetic.
The film’s title refers to a brand of wax matchsticks that used to be popular among users. They produce a uniform flame, which helps the brown sugar produce uniform smoke.
The first time I saw the film I was not a big fan of it. Technically it impressed me, but the story left much to be desired. However, as I started to read about it, how almost all the scenes in the film are based on real-life anecdotes that the director has heard about and even witnessed himself. Gave me an entirely new perspective towards it.
Synopsis:
The film has 4 storylines running parallel to each other with just having one element in common. Brown sugar. Rather, the character’s hunger for it. Whether it is a failed college student waiting at a street corner for his dealer, a transsexual parent looking to sell his body in exchange for money, just to get his fix for the night, three friends who decide that the safest place for them to get high would be an abandoned, old and decrepit airplane. Or the two addicts who try to rob a medical store, but fail miserably. As I was watching the events unfold I was reminded of Pulp Fiction a lot.
The story is not linearly structured. It shows different perspectives in a ‘slice of life’ type scenario. For the audience, it might be a fascinating incident, but for the characters, it’s life in it’s most mundane self.
The entire time I was expecting the storylines to converge at one common point, but they never really do. Driving home the fact that they are all self-contained stories and exist in their own small worlds with their own set of circumstances.
How is the story?
The director and writers managed to portray the characters as people and not caricatures. But in a film whose main focus is to create an environment, some characters can come off as forgettable and not that interesting when put in an isolated condition. But, then again that wasn’t the main aim of the movie anyway. It’s just my inclination to cling towards more character-based stories.
The film definitely does not hold a sign up over its head saying “Don’t do drugs’ or even tries to create sympathy for the characters. Instead, they just want us to understand them and their world as a reality and not shun it away as being improper or inadequate.
The dialogue exchange between the characters is rich and feels raw, a lot less manufactured than what we see in a lot of “drug films”. Some scenes are downright hilarious with the witty banter between the characters, I definitely caught myself laughing at certain moments .
How's the camerawork?
The aim here is not to go through a plot per se, but to create an atmosphere which feels real and lived in.
And they achieve that with gorgeous cinematography. I would go as far as to call it some of the best I’ve seen in Indian cinema!
You get to see a side of Kolkata you probably have never seen before. The dark and dingy back alleys, the shady street corners. Basically, the roads less traveled have become a haven for drug addicts. Couple that with heavy downpour, and the whole city just comes alive, as a character of its own.
The whole film is in black and white, which beautifies each frame and creates an almost dream-like state.
The lighting is also phenomenal, putting emphasis on the various light sources in the environment. Whether it is the windows on an airplane or the dim light of a candle. The use of real-life light sources makes the cinematic experience that much more immersive.
What about the score?
The soundtrack is great and fits the vibe perfectly. The grungy background music helps you get in the mind of the people, it is what they like to listen to when they decide to get high.
My Final Thoughts
Certain scenes of the film definitely did not land for me while some really did. A few scenes just came off as contrived and unnecessary. But all of them were shot so beautifully and with such craftiness, I found it hard to dwell on the negatives for too long.
This was a very interesting watch, to say the least. The world is absolutely immersive. They practically conduct a cinematography masterclass and how the light is manipulated to tell a story is fascinating. At the same time, the characters are largely forgettable and I feel most of the people reading this would not be able to relate with any of them. Still, the film does an excellent job of giving the viewers an inside look into the lives of an addict, one of the few films which portray them credibly instead of pushing an agenda down the audience’s throat.
The film is showing now on Mubi, if you are a fan of indie cinema and want to see some innovative filmmaking then go ahead and give this one a watch with my personal recommendation.
If you liked this one, check out my review of one of the best motivational films, 'Pursuit of Happyness' by clicking right here.
Trailer:
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