A magical flight with minor turbulence

A haunting line marks the beginning of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s seminal novel One Hundred Years of Solitude. “Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.”

- KARTIK BHARDWAJ

The book frequently popped into my mind while experiencing Raam Reddy’s Jugnuma, maybe because both deal with magic realism. The line can be tweaked if Jugnuma had to have an alternate beginning: “Many years later, on one nostalgic evening, little Juju was to remember that distant afternoon when his father taught him how to fly.”

The dad is Dev (Manoj Bajpayee), Juju (Awan Pookot) is his youngest, and the flying is not metaphorical. On some days, Dev can be spotted treading through his vast mountain estate, greeting village folk who don’t even bat an eyelid at the wings he wears like a backpack. Later, he jumps off a cliff for his regular flight. During its runtime, Jugnuma plants a lot of

questions that it might not provide definite answers to. It can best be described as an undecipherable morning dream, which lingers in your head long after.