Venice Film Festival | 'Songs of Forgotten Trees' Short Take: Anuparna Roy’s Debut Finds Tenderness Amid Hardship

Songs of Forgotten Trees is a clear-eyed, restrained, moving story of two young women, lonely and bruised, finding solace in each other. Thooya and Swetha are migrants in Mumbai. Thooya, played by Naaz Shaikh, is an aspiring actress and part-time sex worker — it helps to pay the bills. Swetha, played by Sumi Baghel, is a call center employee, hoping to find a soulmate in the matrimonial market. Both are navigating an indifferent, manic city. Swetha, a new arrival, is still a little starry-eyed. She really wants to see the ‘samudra’ but Thooya tells her with the amused awareness of an old timer – itna bhi khubsoorat nahi hai.

The film, presented by Anurag Kashyap, is the debut feature of Anuparna Roy and the only Indian film selected for the prestigious Orizzonti section of the 82nd Venice Film Festival (Karan Tejpal’s Stolen and Chaitanya Tamhane’s Court also premiered here). The scenario might remind you of Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light, also about the bond between two migrant women in Mumbai. But Anuparna’s vision is far less lyrical.  With stillness, long takes and an understated tone, she creates an anguished portrait of what it takes for women to survive. The heart of this film is a scene in which the two women are in two bathrooms next to each other — one is washing clothes in the bathing space, and the other is using the commode as a chair. What starts out as buoyant banter shifts seamlessly into grief and tears. The scene is beautifully staged and performed.

The film’s title refers to the Hollong trees found in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. Central to the story are Thooya’s memories of a childhood friend named Jhumpa who is married off as a child and disappears, which is inspired by Anuparna’s own life and the loss of her friend Jhuma, her classmate from Class V.  Jhuma was married off as a child and never returned to school. Anuparna’s original intention with this story was to make a documentary in search of Jhuma.  In the film, the trauma of losing a friend haunts Thooya. Swetha disapproves of Thooya’s sex work, but Thooya astutely reminds her that once she has married, she will also be having sex, sometimes without choice in the matter.

Both women are trapped by their circumstances and yet fighting for a better life. Which is represented here by the colour red. Thooya’s red sari becomes a symbol of freedom, agency, a smidgen of joy. And keep an eye on how beautifully Anuparna uses red nail polish, especially in the last frame of the film. The director doesn’t tell us whether Thooya and Swetha become closer than friends. Anuparna is not a storyteller who over-explains. The visuals of the swaying Hollong trees interspersed in this tough urban tale, add a touch of poetry.

Some of the dialogue in Songs of Forgotten Trees feels forced and the angle of Thooya’s landlord’s wife is undercooked. But mostly the film stays the course with strong performances by its leads. And also, by Bhushan Shimpi who plays the predatory landlord with superb oiliness and menace. He personifies the abuse that women must confront and process on a daily basis. In one scene, Swetha is trying to calm a customer who says he will buy the product but only if she promises to speak with him every day on the phone. The harassment is universal and routine.  

But like women everywhere, Thooya and Swetha resist and persist. And that is a thing of beauty.