My invite to the screening of The Fable at the 35th Singapore International Film Festival. Director Raam Reddy and lead actor Manoj Bajpayee were in attendance.
Director: Raam Reddy
Runtime: 119 minutes
Languages: Hindi, English, and Pahari audio; English subtitles
Certification: PG (Singapore)
“How much knowledge do you need to have to engage with something in a meaningful way?” I was reminded of this question posed by the video essay Reading Binging Benning (2018) while writing my review of The Fable (2024). The video essayists were commissioned by the International Film Festival Rotterdam to introduce a screening of James Benning’s Readers (2017)—but they had no access to the film. They had two stills, detailed information about the film, and access to some of Benning’s other works, but these don’t replace the film itself.
My situation with The Fable isn’t as drastic as these video essayists’, since I actually did watch it. There was even a pre-screening introduction from the director himself, who expressed an intention behind the film: he wanted the audience to undergo a “spiritual” experience.
I did not have this experience.
The Fable has elements that sound like the film could be spiritual. It is slow-paced. It features a group of ascetic people. They chant in unison. One of them meets with the protagonist’s daughter, Vanya (Hiral Sidhu), and they hum together, seeming to have a quasi-telepathic conversation. The protagonist’s wife, Nandini (Priyanka Bose), performs songs about spiritual concepts.
In my research for this review, I discovered that the first song Nandini sings is “Shivoham”, also known as “Nirvana Shatakam”. I frequently found the composition being attributed to the Hindu philosopher Adi Shankara. I didn’t manage to find out what the second composition is, but from what I remember, Nandini sings about a place of seemingly peaceful nothingness.
Maybe the film connects better with Hindu audiences, or at least, with those who are quite familiar with Hinduism, unlike me. However, I feel that it should still be able to resonate. I’m not that knowledgeable regarding Shintoism or Buddhism either, yet I was in awe at Princess Mononoke (1997). Earlier this year, I rewatched the Studio Ghibli film, intending to take mental notes at the same time. It wasn’t long before I forgot all about taking notes. Princess Mononoke entranced me. On the other hand, The Fable was generally boring.
No, a film being boring doesn’t necessarily make it bad. For example, I’d describe Forgotten Planets (2018) as “boring”. Something about it made me want to rewatch it, though, which I did less than a month later. (Granted, there was also the motivation that I had easy access to the film at the time, something which was likely to change in the future.) I think what I liked about Forgotten Planets was its calming mood. Even though neither of its two protagonists are content with the state of things, it’s still a very slice-of-life story without much tension.
The Fable, however, isn’t a pleasantly boring film. It maintains its tension for too long, and for too long at the same level of intensity. The tension mainly comes from the mystery of who is burning the protagonist’s orchards and why. This premise sounds dramatic, but the problem is that it rarely feels like anything is at stake for Dev (Manoj Bajpayee).
Via SGIFF.com
The programme guide of the 38th Leeds International Film Festival (LIFF) calls The Fable a “political allegory”.
I can see that the film touches on the themes of colonialism and class. At the beginning, a narrator from the future tells us that it was the British who gave the orchards to Dev’s family. The British gave them to his family as a reward. At the end, the narrator says that Dev and his family suddenly disappeared one day but not without a letter. In the letter, Dev declares his land returned to the villagers who originally owned it and that he gives the family residence to his former orchard manager, Mohan (Deepak Dobriyal), who we discover is the narrator.
Where did Dev and his family go? The filmmakes it quite obvious that they are the fairies in the…well, fable that the wife of an orchard worker tells her young son. “It’s about a family who looked just like us,” the woman says. “Even they thought they were like everyone else. But the truth was, they were special souls.” She goes on to say that these “special souls” are actually fairies who had come to earth and forgotten where they came from.
At the start of The Fable, Dev is shown to have a hobby of designing and building wings that let him fly around. At the end, we catch a glimpse of winged figures soaring through the clouds and a pair of his engineered wings attached to a stake in the woods, fully unfurled.
LIFF describes the film as not only a “political allegory” but an “incisive” one.
I can’t see the allegory.
What was the point of making Dev and his family fairies? Having the land returned to their original inhabitants seems to display an anti-colonialist sentiment, but this is undermined by implying that the “special souls” in this story are the characters who have ties to the colonisers.
As a Muslim, I connect to the idea that there is a better world beyond this earth. I believe that even if someone’s life appears to be full of hardship and pain, if they endure it patiently and correctly (i.e. according to God’s commands), then they will attain Paradise in the hereafter. Leaving this world would be liberating for them.
I didn’t feel any sense of liberation when Dev and his family leave earth. Of course, having your land mysteriously burn away before you would be terrifying for anybody. The fire even reaches the plants before the family’s doorstep. But when compared to the tribulations of their employees, those that Dev and his family experience don’t feel particularly heavy.
During the mysterious fires, the patwari (also known as a village accountant) continuously tries to impress wealthy landowner Dev by “assisting” in the investigation, including getting police officers to make arrests. After a huge fire on a mountainside, the patwari brings the police and tells them to make five arrests no matter what. So, without any sufficient evidence, the police arrest five orchard workers who risked their lives to put out the raging fire. Who will assist the villagers? Dev eventually stops the police from taking the arrestees away—but he appears to do this reluctantly. Later, he lays off all his staff.
After all that has happened, is it really a liberation for Dev and his family to fly away to their fairy home?
What’s the allegory?
In Reading Binging Benning, Kevin B. Lee talks about his experience watching his first Benning film, RR (2007). Lee says, “The whole time, my head is spinning, trying to figure out, ‘Is there something in front of me that I’m just not seeing?’ I was facing an image that wasn’t telling me how to read it.”
Maybe I don’t know enough about the history or cultures of India to appreciate the film. But how much do I need to know? How much knowledge is fair to assume the audience has? It sounds strange, but The Fable could probably do with more exposition.
Rating: 1.5/5
Thank you to SGIFF for the Cinephile Pass and for the invite to the Special Presentation of The Fable.
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