‘Cactus Pears’ Review: A Tender and Subtle Story of Forbidden Love in India
Rohan Kanawade’s debut film ‘Cactus Pears’ is a gentle, nuanced drama about forbidden love and emotional awakening set in rural India.
Mumbai filmmaker Rohan Kanawade makes an impressive directorial debut with “Cactus Pears”, a tender, subtle and candid story of forbidden – or semi-forbidden and semi-unacknowledged – love. The film is scrupulously observed and reveals the oppressive importance of family, status and class in Indian society.
The protagonist Anand (Bhushaan Manoj) is a 30-year-old call-centre worker from Mumbai who must return to his remote home village after his father’s death. He is expected to stay for the full 10-day mourning period, and he has to grovellingly apologise to his boss over the phone for the absence. His father’s last words, incidentally, were a wish that his wife Suman (Jayshri Jagtap) cook him a really nice meal – the poignancy of this request is cleverly revealed later when Anand’s elderly, blind grandfather recalls why he agreed to marry the lowly and uneducated Suman.
In one of the film’s many murmuringly subdued dialogue exchanges, the widow advises Anand to stay discreet about his reasons for leaving and why he is still unmarried; the cover story is that a “girl” broke his heart. Anand painfully ponders whether to send this person a text revealing that he is back in the old neighbourhood. More importantly, Anand reconnects with Balya (Suraaj Suman), a poor goatherd and casual worker whose family money was long spent on his sister’s dowry. Balya shares Anand’s dormant feelings for him, but is under pressure to get married within a community that is collectively aware, at some level of denial, about why he is single and wants him to stop embarrassing everyone.
As the 10-day observance continues and the funeral ceremony draws nearer, Anand becomes more resolved about what he wants his future to look like. The cactus pears of the title are a shy gift from Balya to Anand; he has symbolically removed their prickles in advance, a touching act that only underscores how the prickles are not to be removed so easily in any other aspect of their lives.
