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'Enso' movie review: A poignant take on mental health

Last Updated 20 September 2022, 06:18 IST

Enso

Kannada (Short Film/YouTube)

Director: Megha Shetty

Rating: 3.5/5

Megha Shetty's 29-minute short film ‘Enso’ has recently won the Toto award and it became the second runner up at the Bengaluru Short Film Festival. The film's title refers to a sacred symbol in Zen Buddhism. It means circle, a circle of togetherness, symbolising the beauty of imperfection.

The film oscillates between showing a young girl’s dealings with trauma while living in a city and capturing the mundane life of a father living in a tiny village of Western Ghats, both mourning after a death. Its slow pace helps the audience soak in the world of the characters.

Mental health is hardly discussed in Kannada cinema and the film’s exploration of the subject is quite just. The protagonist acknowledges that her brother died because of depression and the problem could have been addressed. The film shows the father and daughter dealing with mental health in their own ways. The film conveys that departed humans leave only suffering to their loved ones.

It also sheds light on the migration of the youth from the villages to the cities, resulting in a strong sense of isolation from the loved ones. Megha tells her personal story through this medium effectively, capturing the life of her own land in rich detail.

Be it the scene of a cow’s death, or a girl waiting alone in a bus stop for someone to pick her up to reach her village or the use of local language, ‘Enso’ is marked by authenticity. It’s very much a coming of age story, which has the right blend of love, guilt, anger and helplessness.

The film ends with a common man’s philosophy of everyday life, taking a painful leap of faith. ‘Enso’ tells us that life happens at the mercy of nature and we have to live with the routines of silences and memories.

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(Published 17 September 2022, 03:09 IST)

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