Read the full article on Firstpost, here: https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/how-a-viewer-benefits-from-knowing-the-plot-of-a-film-through-the-lens-of-two-titles-at-mami-2019-7546731.html
Oliver Laxe is at the Jio MAMI 21st Mumbai Film Festival with Star, with O Que Arde (Fire Will Come). The Spanish drama premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes this year, and it won the Jury Prize. This is exactly how the film was described in the synopsis on the Cannes web site. “When Amador Coro gets out of prison for having provoked a fire, nobody is waiting for him. He returns to his home town, a small village hidden in the mountains of rural Galicia, to live with his elder mother, Benedicta, and three cows. Life goes on calmly, following the rhythm of the nature. Until the night when a fire devastates the region.” Now, you may have some quibbles with the English (which was corrected in the MAMI brochure; for instance “home town” is now “hometown”), but you come away with a sense of the film, which is the whole point of a synopsis.
Now, consider the synopsis of Nitin Bhaskar’s Konkani drama, Kaajro (Bitter Tree), which played in the India Story section at MAMI: “Tilgya belongs to an untouchable caste. His ailing wife dies just as his village is celebrating the annual festival of Dussehra, marking the triumph of Lord Rama over Ravana, of good over evil. Debarred from participating in the festival procession, Tilgya is forced to leave the village with his dead wife’s body.” This is the entire story of the film. Now, why would a filmmaker give away the ending? One reason could be that this movie is less about what happens than how. The whole film is shot in one take — it’s a stunning technical feat. That’s easily its most impressive aspect. The characters and the interactions between them fade in comparison.
Continued at the link above.
Copyright ©2019 Firstpost.
Baradwaj Rangan 
tonks
October 24, 2019
The first is from the viewpoint of the general (or casual) viewer, i.e., someone who is basically watching a movie to find out what happens. In other words, he or she wants to watch the plot unfold. And for this viewer, the synopsis of Kaajro is going to spoil the experience. (By revealing the synopsis in this piece, am I guilty of the same crime, too? I’d say no, because this kind of “casual viewer” is probably not going to be reading such a piece in the first place.) The other way to look at this question is through the viewpoint of the film-festival viewer, who is more interested in the art form
Is it the norm then that only casual viewers care about plot? Because I do care about what happens in a movie, I prefer not knowing what happens beforehand and try as I might I usually find it difficult to care very much for movies where nothing happens however brilliant the form is. Not just “twist in the end” movies like The sixth sense, I don’t suppose I would have liked watching movies like Premam or Life is beautiful or Roma if I knew the plot beforehand. Neither can I make myself care very much for music/ songs if I do not like the lyrics so I do not like classical music. Nor does even extremely well written prose move me if there’s no substance to the story. It must be a matter of taste.
Does that make me an inferior sort of viewer when compared to those who prefer form?
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brangan
October 24, 2019
tonks: I think you have been around enough on this site to know I would never use words like “inferior” or “superior” — especially in the matter of taste.
I just meant “casual”, is all.
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tonks
October 24, 2019
True. I should have left out the last line.
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Venkat
October 24, 2019
BR sir, the first post page also seems to have a problem while viewing from mobile. When clicking on show full story , it just goes to a blank new page.
Also, kaajro sounds so exciting to watch. Missing MAMI big time. Hoping to plan ahead and take a week or two off for it from next year onwards.
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Vikram s
October 25, 2019
Sharing something that happened to me. I am not a Tamil speaker (but I understand it a bit) and I showed up to watch Super deluxe on the first day at a single screen theater. Apart from the poor projection quality, I couldn’t quite catch the dialogue. After sometime, I started focusing on the plot and understood a bit. I saw it again in a multiplex where it played with subtitles. I enjoyed it the second time since I was freed up from trying to focus on the plot. I focused on getting the non-plot related stuff. 🙂
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brangan
October 25, 2019
Vikram s: Haha. Thanks for that. Now, let’s convert everyone to the dark side 😈
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krishikari
October 31, 2019
I agree with Tonks, Even as one who studied film making, I come to a film first as a lover of cinema which means content plus the art. Its the combination of the character, plot and the artistry of that creates the magic. Of course you can appreciate more on a second viewing when you are not concentrating on the plot but you really lose a lot if you go in for the first viewing after reading spoilers and the surprises and small thrills that the creators have painstakingly crafted just become a flatter experience.
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