Venkatesh (Venkatesh Chavan) works cleaning rooms at a small hotel in Goa and tries to make a little extra on the side with his friend Jhangir (Jhangir Badshah) by selling cheap plastic bags to street traders. One day, Venkatesh sees a swimming pool within a walled and gated property and sets out to ingratiate himself with the owner, Nana (Nana Patekar). Venkatesh is nothing if not aspirational, but the pool which encapsulates those aspirations for him also represents tragedy and heartache for Nana and his seemingly sullen and enigmatic daughter Ayesha (Ayesha Mohan).
*****
Director and co-writer Chris Smith has a background in American independent cinema, making his latest effort, shot in India and with its dialogue almost entirely in Hindi, all the more beguiling. Whether he simply relishes a challenge, or found something poignant in telling this rich and profound story from an outsider’s perspective, we do not know.
*****
Director and co-writer Chris Smith has a background in American independent cinema, making his latest effort, shot in India and with its dialogue almost entirely in Hindi, all the more beguiling. Whether he simply relishes a challenge, or found something poignant in telling this rich and profound story from an outsider’s perspective, we do not know.
- 11/16/2012
- by Dave Roper
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
It took a while to get a UK release, but Chris Smith's film about Goan youth has a winning fluency
Chris Smith is the Us documentary film-maker who recorded the adventures of anti-corporate pranksters, The Yes Men. Here is something very different, a fiction feature he made five years ago in southern India: gentle, well acted, tremendously shot: a movie with enormous charm.
The Pool is set in Panjim in Goa, where two boys, Venkatesh (Venkatesh Chavan) and Jhangir (Jhangir Badshah) are living hand-to-mouth. Venkatesh conceives an envious fascination with the fancy swimming pool in beautiful grounds he can see by perching on a high tree branch – and then becomes obsessed with the demure girl called Ayesha (Ayesha Mohan) who is always reading by the pool.
Smith's film is natural and unforced, with a winning fluency and calm observational style. It might well be inspired by Satyajit Ray, but the influence is lightly worn.
Chris Smith is the Us documentary film-maker who recorded the adventures of anti-corporate pranksters, The Yes Men. Here is something very different, a fiction feature he made five years ago in southern India: gentle, well acted, tremendously shot: a movie with enormous charm.
The Pool is set in Panjim in Goa, where two boys, Venkatesh (Venkatesh Chavan) and Jhangir (Jhangir Badshah) are living hand-to-mouth. Venkatesh conceives an envious fascination with the fancy swimming pool in beautiful grounds he can see by perching on a high tree branch – and then becomes obsessed with the demure girl called Ayesha (Ayesha Mohan) who is always reading by the pool.
Smith's film is natural and unforced, with a winning fluency and calm observational style. It might well be inspired by Satyajit Ray, but the influence is lightly worn.
- 11/16/2012
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
The Pool Directed by: Chris Smith Written by: Chris Smith and Randy Russell Starring: Venkatesh Chavan, Ayesha Mohan, Nana Patekar, Jhangir Badshah When I heard that director Chris Smith's latest movie was due to hit theatres soon, I was looking forward to another strange but true documentary along the lines of American Movie, Home Movie and The Yes Men, all of which I enjoyed a great deal. To my surprise, however, his next film turned out to be something completely different. Not only does The Pool mark Smith's first foray into the world of dramatic fictional filmmaking, it was also shot on location in India -- in a language that Smith does not speak. The Pool first played at Sundance back in 2007, and it has taken over two years to reach Canadian theatres. Considering the fact that the film made a number of critics' lists for Best Movies of...
- 4/6/2009
- by Sean
- FilmJunk
A Shot at Drama and Hitting the Bulls-Eye: Filmmaker Chris Smith triumphs with 'The Pool' Far away from Chris Smith's Wisconsin home, in the bustling port city of Panjim, India, the veteran documentary filmmaker opens an exciting new chapter in his artistic life. "The Pool," the first drama from the 38-year-old director, is a quiet, beautiful, coming-of-age tale featuring a mostly non-professional cast. It's an impressive achievement, not just for its bold departure from Smith's previous films, the humorous true stories of "American Job," "American Movie," and "The Yes Men;" but for its stand-alone qualities as humanist filmmaking of the highest order. 18-year-old Venkatesh (Venkatesh Chavan in an extraordinary performance) works at a modest hotel in Panjim performing every conceivable task - making the beds, cleaning the toilets and delivering room service. Yet, he still needs to sell plastic bags on the street with his young friend...
- 11/13/2008
- Upcoming-Movies.com
Outwardly confident yet quietly insecure, 18-year-old Venkatesh Chavan climbs into a tree and stares at a pristine pool. He's a domestic worker at a nearby hotel in the Indian coastal city of Panjim, Goa, and he's ambitious enough to know that he wants something more, even if he doesn't know what, exactly. He performs his duties, meets his considerably younger friend Jhangir Badshah to sell plastic bags to earn extra money, studies the untouched pool and the surrounding, uninhabitated house and garden grounds, and retires for the night.
Boiled down to its essence, The Pool, which opened in New York earlier this week and will expand across the country in the coming weeks, is an apparently obvious tale that unexpectedly yet inexorably immerses the viewer in the lives of four characters that, like the pool itself, are deeper than they appear from the surface.
Venkatesh, for example, gives the appearance of an industrious young man,...
Boiled down to its essence, The Pool, which opened in New York earlier this week and will expand across the country in the coming weeks, is an apparently obvious tale that unexpectedly yet inexorably immerses the viewer in the lives of four characters that, like the pool itself, are deeper than they appear from the surface.
Venkatesh, for example, gives the appearance of an industrious young man,...
- 9/6/2008
- by Peter Martin
- Cinematical
Palm Springs International Film Festival
PALM SPRINGS -- Returning to narrative film after his well-received documentaries, Milwaukee-based writer-director Chris Smith has ventured to India and made a truly independent gem of a feature.
"The Pool" combines actors and nonpros speaking Hindi and a smattering of English in the story of a poor teen who befriends a wealthy man and his daughter. Informed by incisive observations about the class divide but more interested in the mysteries of the human heart, this gentle variation on neorealism is a delight on every level.
Uplifting without a drop of sap, the tale of a boy's obsession with a glittering swim-ming pool and how it changes four lives offers numerous pleasures and one of the most satisfying and resonant conclusions to be seen in recent cinema.
The self-financed film, a selection of the Palm Springs International Film Festival, is scheduled for September release in New York by Vitagraph Films -- the distribution arm of the American Cinematheque -- with rollout to select markets to follow.
Shooting in Panjim, capital of the Indian state of Goa, Smith tapped two local boys to play versions of themselves in this adaptation of an Iowa-set short story by co-scripter Randy Russell. Venkatesh Chavan portrays an illiterate 18-year-old from the country who works in a hotel and dreams of being able to attend school. During his off hours, Venkatesh and his best friend, Jhangir (Jhangir Badshah), an orphaned 11-year-old restaurant employee, buy plastic bags from a store and resell them on the street -- an entrepreneurial venture that's dashed when the city bans plastic bags.
But Venkatesh soon finds a new opportunity, working in the garden of a wealthy man (veteran actor Nana Patekar). It's no accident that they meet; Venkatesh has been observing the man for some time, perched in a mango tree in the city's tony hilltop neighborhood. The man's tranquil backyard pool has captured his imagination -- if he can swim in it freely, he tells Jhangir, all his problems will dissolve. Later, when he does receive the go-ahead to use the pool, it comes with an offhand revelation that explains the man's reserve and his insolent teenage daughter's anger.
Guileless and unselfconscious about his low economic status, Venkatesh draws out both the man and his daughter (Ayesha Mohan). Beneath her big-city sophistication and tough veneer, Ayesha is a compassionate soul. Jhangir sees a made-for-each-other couple, but Ven-katesh tells Ayesha with a smile that his marriage is arranged; he need only wait for his 10-year-old "darling" to grow up. Still, he's not above trying to impress Ayesha, asserting with sweet cockiness that he has access to a boat, then having to scramble with Jhangir to find one.
On their day trips to old forts and the lake, this trio share sad, sometimes terrible realities about their young lives. Ayesha's father, meanwhile, working in the garden with Venkatesh, slowly responds to the boy's gabbiness, his reticence giving way to adages and fatherly advice that reveal the soul of a poet. Venkatesh privately laughs at his "corny philosophies," but they make a profound impression on him and lead to the film's final, heroic act of generosity.
The cast delivers lovely, unforced work. Lending the story buoyancy is the soundtrack's judicious use of music recorded in Mumbai's only remaining analog studio, under the helm of retired Bollywood arranger Kersi Lord.
Smith, doing his own 35mm camerawork, brings an outstanding sense of movement and composition to the proceedings, capturing a vivid sense of place and, above all, the deepening, unspoken connections among his characters. Some of the film's quietest moments detonate with heart-stopping poignancy.
THE POOL
Vitagraph Films
Bluemark Prods.
Credits:
Director/director of photography: Chris Smith
Screenwriters: Chris Smith, Randy Russell
Based on the short story by: Randy Russell
Producer: Kate Noble
Music: Didier Leplae, Joe Wong
Costume designer: Darshan Jalan
Editor: Barry Poltermann
Cast:
Venkatesh: Venkatesh Chavan
Jhangir: Jhangir Badshah
Ayesha: Ayesha Mohan
Welathy Man: Nana Patekar
Running time -- 95 minutes
No MPAA rating...
PALM SPRINGS -- Returning to narrative film after his well-received documentaries, Milwaukee-based writer-director Chris Smith has ventured to India and made a truly independent gem of a feature.
"The Pool" combines actors and nonpros speaking Hindi and a smattering of English in the story of a poor teen who befriends a wealthy man and his daughter. Informed by incisive observations about the class divide but more interested in the mysteries of the human heart, this gentle variation on neorealism is a delight on every level.
Uplifting without a drop of sap, the tale of a boy's obsession with a glittering swim-ming pool and how it changes four lives offers numerous pleasures and one of the most satisfying and resonant conclusions to be seen in recent cinema.
The self-financed film, a selection of the Palm Springs International Film Festival, is scheduled for September release in New York by Vitagraph Films -- the distribution arm of the American Cinematheque -- with rollout to select markets to follow.
Shooting in Panjim, capital of the Indian state of Goa, Smith tapped two local boys to play versions of themselves in this adaptation of an Iowa-set short story by co-scripter Randy Russell. Venkatesh Chavan portrays an illiterate 18-year-old from the country who works in a hotel and dreams of being able to attend school. During his off hours, Venkatesh and his best friend, Jhangir (Jhangir Badshah), an orphaned 11-year-old restaurant employee, buy plastic bags from a store and resell them on the street -- an entrepreneurial venture that's dashed when the city bans plastic bags.
But Venkatesh soon finds a new opportunity, working in the garden of a wealthy man (veteran actor Nana Patekar). It's no accident that they meet; Venkatesh has been observing the man for some time, perched in a mango tree in the city's tony hilltop neighborhood. The man's tranquil backyard pool has captured his imagination -- if he can swim in it freely, he tells Jhangir, all his problems will dissolve. Later, when he does receive the go-ahead to use the pool, it comes with an offhand revelation that explains the man's reserve and his insolent teenage daughter's anger.
Guileless and unselfconscious about his low economic status, Venkatesh draws out both the man and his daughter (Ayesha Mohan). Beneath her big-city sophistication and tough veneer, Ayesha is a compassionate soul. Jhangir sees a made-for-each-other couple, but Ven-katesh tells Ayesha with a smile that his marriage is arranged; he need only wait for his 10-year-old "darling" to grow up. Still, he's not above trying to impress Ayesha, asserting with sweet cockiness that he has access to a boat, then having to scramble with Jhangir to find one.
On their day trips to old forts and the lake, this trio share sad, sometimes terrible realities about their young lives. Ayesha's father, meanwhile, working in the garden with Venkatesh, slowly responds to the boy's gabbiness, his reticence giving way to adages and fatherly advice that reveal the soul of a poet. Venkatesh privately laughs at his "corny philosophies," but they make a profound impression on him and lead to the film's final, heroic act of generosity.
The cast delivers lovely, unforced work. Lending the story buoyancy is the soundtrack's judicious use of music recorded in Mumbai's only remaining analog studio, under the helm of retired Bollywood arranger Kersi Lord.
Smith, doing his own 35mm camerawork, brings an outstanding sense of movement and composition to the proceedings, capturing a vivid sense of place and, above all, the deepening, unspoken connections among his characters. Some of the film's quietest moments detonate with heart-stopping poignancy.
THE POOL
Vitagraph Films
Bluemark Prods.
Credits:
Director/director of photography: Chris Smith
Screenwriters: Chris Smith, Randy Russell
Based on the short story by: Randy Russell
Producer: Kate Noble
Music: Didier Leplae, Joe Wong
Costume designer: Darshan Jalan
Editor: Barry Poltermann
Cast:
Venkatesh: Venkatesh Chavan
Jhangir: Jhangir Badshah
Ayesha: Ayesha Mohan
Welathy Man: Nana Patekar
Running time -- 95 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 1/14/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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