A review of Photo-Prem
By Jashvitha Dhagey
When you die, which photo do you think your family is going to frame to remember you by? This is the question that Photo-Prem (Photo-love) sets out to explore. A 50-something homemaker Sunanda played by Neena Kulkarni is absolutely haunted by the idea of being photographed. Her life takes a new turn when she attends the funeral of a woman almost her own age.
The family of the deceased cannot find a photo that they can frame. They resort to using one from her teens! This sets off Sunanda on a frantic search for her own pictures; she finds none. Sunanda is mortified when she realises that her aversion to the camera in her life is going to mean that when she dies there will be no image by which her family can remember her.
Sunanda’s life reflects the reality of so many homemakers who are resigned to being caretakers with no individuality. They are consistently denied the spotlight by their own family who seldom acknowledges what their homemakers do for them. We see this in how Sunanda’s husband played by Vikas Kamble doesn’t exist in her life apart from when she has to pack his tiffin box. He returns home only to sleep. This leaves her with enough time to pursue her newly developed insanity.
Photo-Prem broaches the ideas of death and the afterlife. It is a dark comedy that makes its viewers come face to face with death. Humor is used to remind us that death too, is a part of life.
Sunanda practises poses in front of the camera and obsessively looks for obituaries in the newspaper every single day. She even attends the prayer meets of those whose pictures she finds memorable! It really hits the viewers that she’s dead serious about this endeavour when she imitates these poses to get that perfect afterlife photograph.
The film traces Sunanda’s journey but leaves her family behind even though their negligence is a catalyst of this slowly brewing reaction. This transformation in isolation is great to watch but it would have been better had the family been an active part of it. Women go through so much all by themselves. They should be shown as people who are ready to be themselves in front of the very people who treat them as nobodies. Resigning Sunanda to her own world makes the acknowledgement of this transformation by them impossible. But if you watch the film, you’ll know that Sunanda is obsessed with her afterlife and almost forgets to live in the present. You don’t know whether to be pleased with her for not letting herself be bothered by her family while she’s alive.
Finding a photograph of ourselves in today’s times isn’t challenging anymore. But what’s difficult to digest for some of us is how we are going to be remembered when we die. Uncomfortable as it is, the lightheartedness in the portrayal of this endeavour makes us support Sunanda’s obsession. But not without the thoughts of our own afterlives in our heads.
In her quest to get the perfect afterlife portrait, Sunanda is supported by her house help Shantabai played by Chaitali Rode. Rode’s performance is one that stands out with her character's unabashed ways and unbridled support for our protagonist. Another character that we are sure to remember is the nosy neighbour of the deceased woman played by the late Geetanjali Kambli who is obsessed with Solapur. Her dialogue delivery is spot on and viewers will find themselves smiling every single time she comes on screen.
Photo-Prem makes for a compelling watch for its acceptance of this reality called life. It doesn’t overplay the role of death in our lives. It raises questions of whether our deeds make our lives memorable or our photographs. In the end, it reminds us to live every day as it comes and be ourselves in every picture we are a part of.
Photo-Prem is available on Prime Video.