Anupama Chopra

Songs of Forgotten Trees is a clear-eyed, restrained, moving story of two young women, lonely and bruised, finding solace in each other. Thooya and Swetha are migrants in Mumbai. Thooya, played by Naaz Shaikh, is an aspiring actress and part-time sex worker — it helps to pay the bills. Swetha, played by Sumi Baghel, is a call center employee, hoping to find a soulmate in the matrimonial market. Both are navigating an indifferent, manic city. Swetha, a new arrival, is still a little starry-eyed. She really wants to see the ‘samudra’ but Thooya tells her with the amused awareness of an old timer – itna bhi khubsoorat nahi hai. The film, presented by Anurag Kashyap, is the debut feature of Anuparna Roy and the only Indian film selected for the prestigious Orizzonti section of the 82nd Venice Film Festival (Karan Tejpal’s Stolen and Chaitanya Tamhane’s Court also premiered here). The scenario might remind you of Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light, also about the bond between two migrant women in Mumbai. But Anuparna’s vision is far less lyrical. With stillness, long takes and an understated tone, she creates an anguished portrait of what it takes for women to survive. The heart of this film is a scene in which the two women are in two bathrooms next to each other — one is washing clothes in the bathing space, and the other is using the commode as a chair. What starts out as buoyant banter shifts seamlessly into grief and tears. The scene is beautifully staged and performed.