Hitchcock's Rope and Orson Welles' Touch of Evil!

Anand Gandhi's amazingly complex work feels like an abbreviated Bollywood musical, told in two separate and incredibly lengthy tracking shots, the type of filmmaking conceit found in Hitchcock's Rope and Orson Welles' Touch of Evil. One young man (Thomas George) becomes the catalyst in a collision of characters, as George's adventure sets off a chain reaction that begins with his annoyed mom, who transfers her anger to the maid, who quits her job and interacts with another party, and on down the line in a chain reaction of diverse emotions. Each character's thought process is presented in voice-over, some in Hindi, others in Malayalam, Bubbleboilum and numerous distinct dialects, while a soundtrack of songs provides more countepoint, especially with lyrics such as "How intricately woven is this blanket!" Impossible to describe, but an audacious, intricately choreographed delight to experience. Watch the one vignette involving a bike rider and an old lady, as one kid on the sidelines was so obviously piqued that he walks off the street and gets into the shot!

-Bill DeLapp