Taking place in Calcutta, where unemployment and poverty are on the rise, Aditya Vikram Sengupta's Labour of Love focuses on a husband and wife who are fortunate enough to be employed. While the wife works long hours during the day, her husband works the graveyard shift, which leads to the couple rarely having any time together. Labour of Love is a film that gracefully and meticulously examines the daily isolated lives of these two lovers, capturing the solitude of their daily routines which culminates in a poetic, surreal sequence demonstrating the beauty in the few moments they do share together. These two individuals share the same space but rarely ever occupy it at the same time, with the film demonstrating the "Labour" they go through just for the fleeting moments they share together every morning. Featuring hardly any dialogue, The Labour of Love is an extremely observant film, relying completely on image to create its portrait of solitude. While I'll admit the film can be challenging at first, Labour of Love takes on an intoxicating effect soon enough, with its impressive collage of color and sound creating a lyrical experience.. I loved the use of sound as a reminder of the environment these characters occupy, with the loud protests that echo in the streets being a constant reminder of the dire situation around the couple. Sengupta also uses symbolic imagery to capture this with a simple cooking scene that sees the oil in a frying pan slowly burn up, which feels like a visual representation of employment in Calcutta, which continues to dissipate. Aditya Vikram Sengupta's Labour of Love is especially impressive given it's a first time feature, making it resoundingly clear that Sengupta is someone to watch.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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