Ashreya Patial

To feel is to be human, is the popular saying but Rajat Kapoor directed, Ankhon Dekhi takes this quote a step forward, as the lead Bauji (Sanjay Mishra), only acknowledges the feelings he has personally experienced, disregarding everything else. Bauji’s daughter’s choice of marrying the man she loves is mocked by neighbors, forming the backdrop of this decision. Bauji is soft-hearted unlike his brother Rishi(Rajat Kapoor), who gets easily angered. Bauji is the father who stays up at night when his children cannot sleep, introspecting his parenting. Sanjay Mishra adapts Bauji’s character naturally. From speaking in the north Indian Hindi dialect perfectly to a leaning middle-aged body posture. He is Bauji for real. Your journey with the character starts, you travel with his eyes, but not with his mind. His mind is an enclosed mystery throughout the film. Initially, Bauji’s decision is an unwelcome step among his Lower middle-class family, peers, and colleagues, to the extent of declaring him madman. Though no sooner the same people become his blind bhakts (worshippers).Bauji clears the air of divinity attached to him, saying that he is just another confused soul. As if this satire on blind faith wanes, to become a deeper journey of self-exploration. In the disarranged setting of Old Delhi, tracks sang by Kailash Kher become an anthem to Bauji’s internal activism. He can be labeled a Cynic, raising placards for and against everyone. These placards scream, Jo hai Yahin hai, Ankhen Khol Kar Dekho (Open your eyes, whatever you can see is everything). The film mocks people who have absolved societies workings, forgetting the essence of critical thinking. Interestingly, it is not through the eye of an intellectual we learn here from but a person like you and me.