I just watched The Salesman. Yes, it’s the movie that won this year’s Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, and Best Actor and Screenplay at the Cannes. Written and directed by Asghar Farhadi, The Salesman leaves you thinking. While on one hand it shows the sudden drama that is thrown into the life of a happily married couple -- (super-hot!) Shahab Hosseini and Taraneh Alidoost – on the other, there are some beautiful references and glimpses of the drama in Arthur Miller’s masterpiece, Death of a Salesman. Of course, as soon as you hear ‘The Salesman,’ ‘Death of a Salesman’ has to come to your mind.
The performance of every actor is simply beautiful. Like I said, just so subtle, yet striking. And a very special mention for Farid Sajjadi Hosseini. What a brilliant performance, indeed.
The story is extremely gripping and tight, yet delicate and sensitive. It shows the different faces of humans - love, compassion, anger, and, of course, the inherent ugly side. Needless to say, there isn’t a single moment that you’d want to miss. Was I left asking for more…maybe!
The only few annoying moments in the movie were when the Indian censor board decided to mute and remove the English subtitles of certain bits. Like, why?! Isn’t it a given that an audience that is watching world cinema, such as this, would be mature and open-enough to be able to listen to or read the ‘apparently’ censored words.
Anyway, I’ve got to confess that I haven’t watched Asghar Farhadi’s works before. But thanks to The Salesman, I’m definitely going to be watching a lot of Farhadi in the next few weeks; beginning with A Separation, also an Oscar winner and one of his masterpieces.
So, while I start my Farhadi series, you guys must watch The Salesman…coz let’s be honest, ironically, such brilliant world cinema doesn’t stay for too long in most theaters in India.
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