Frozen (2007): A Ladakhi Film? Yes, It Exists!
I wrote this article about this Ladakhi feature film many years ago for another website, which is now defunct. Also, that was before I even visited Ladakh. So, I am publishing with some modifications.
Apricots? Of course most people like them but in the cities we mostly get the dried and packed ones and I did not even know how the real fruit looked like and that one could make jam out of it. I saw a real apricot tree only when I finally visited Turtuk many years later.
Frozen is a Ladakhi film from 2007 about a poor apricot jam maker played by Danny Danzongpa. This is probably the most appropriate and natural role of the Sikkimese actor’s career. In fact, he looked so real in this film that it almost looked surreal for the guy known for playing those 80s and 90s of over the top Bollywood villains.
I think I watched sometime in 2009 or 2010. A film like this, that too in black & white, had no commercial potential and it simply had a special screening one weekend in my city that I got to know through the now defunct Passion for Cinema website. So, now let’s talk about the film.
Whike Bollywood filmmakers romanced Kashmir for a long time, Ladakh remained untouched partly due to its remoteness as well as regulatory concerns. The situation gradually changed in the 21st century but mostly used as a good-looking backdrop for their song and dance routines. There are very few films that actually capture the harsh life of the locals in Ladakh as it is. Shivajee Chandrabhushan’s Frozen is one of them.
Bleak and Beautiful:
It is the story of middle aged man (Danny Denzongpa) with his teenaged daughter (Gauri Kulkarni) and the younger son (Angchuk). They live in a remote village where he makes apricot jams with an archaic, manually operated contraption but struggles to sell them while facing fierce competition from better equipped commercial manufacturers. His daughter observes the world with adolescent bewilderment and has a suitor too. The banter between her and the brother is in stark contrast with the harsh terrain and grim struggle that the family faces.
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He makes a trip to the town to sell his products while the children visit the market and fair with juvenile glee. Back home, an army platoon sets up base near their home and threatens to requisition the entire plot of land citing security matters. It gets bleaker and the director is not even interested in a traditional story with a closure anyways. So, we get a surprise twist at the end that casts doubt over everything we just saw.
Stark Frames:
The film removes all traces of romanticism that we associate with such locations but still comes up with striking imagery that depicts Ladakh in its barren glory. Looming mountains, empty pastures, genetically exotic milieu and glacially moving caravans of trucks can look familiar only to those who have actually made high altitude trips.
The most important creative choice that drives this film is the black and white cinematography. The frames by Shanker Raman are exquisite but the lack of colour strengthens the aforementioned bleakness and harsh life that the natives have to endure. This treatment probably stems from the background of the filmmaker as a mountaineer, who must be familiar with these terrains and these people. But more interestingly, he does not merely aim at a slice of life depiction but is also open to playing mind games with the viewers, details of which cannot be discussed here without giving away some spoilers.
Danny carries the film as the only experienced actor in the cast. It is great to see the Bollywood veteran back a film like this for once. Everyone else in the cast was new and inexperienced at the time of filming. While Gauri Kulkarni has done well, her presence is a bit disconcerting simply because she does not look like a local. But considering the nature of the film, casting must have been difficult.
An Early Indie:
Frozen was made in 2007 and had a decent run in the festival circuit winning a few awards. But general release was a far cry and it just received a few one-off screenings in a couple of cities. In comparison, much lesser indie films are having wider releases now. So, I think it was an early indie film, a bit too ahead of its time. In fact, the craze for the mountains among urban Indian youth had also not started back then. On top of that it has the same name as a popular Disney franchise, which only creates confusion. Still, the situation is marginally better now and I think more people would have seen it if it was made a few years later.
Where to Watch Frozen (2007)?
Now it seem to have ended up on Vimeo and I have embedded it above.
