In recent months, two feature films set in the Union Territory of Ladakh, (a part of the former Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir) were released: Maisam Ali's In Retreat (2024, in Hindi language and local dialects) followed by Praveen Morchhale's White Snow (2025, in Urdu language). Both films presented different reflective scenarios faced by two different Ladakhi families in contemporary Ladakh--the first set in semi-urban settings close to Ladakh's capital Leh, while the latter film transported the viewer to the less-populated rural parts of the state, where even electric power for the homes can be unreliable.
The first half hour of White Snow recalls the two pillars of Morchhale's previous four films--family bonding and persistence to excel in a chosen path by the lead character(s)--in this case, a Ladakhi young man, Ameer, obsessed with the idea of becoming an appreciated Ladakhi filmmaker, having made a 14-minute short film eponymously called "White Snow," based on tales related to his widowed mother's delivery of a child in snow-covered Ladakh. While the initial local responses to the short film within the film are positive, the local Mullah finds the sequence of the childbirth with the child covered in blood religiously unacceptable for public screening. Following the Mullah's publicly communicated views, the local administration curbs further screenings of the short film to avoid a possible law-and-order situation. Even after the innocent filmmaker pleads with local administrator that all humans are born covered in blood, he is subsequently arrested and tortured by the police to figure out if the sequence was mischievously added to stoke riots.
What follows in the longer, latter section of White Snow is amazing, as it goes well beyond stifling of creative freedom by government authorities and Mullahs. Director Morchhale shifts gears in his style and tale to present a road film that recalls works of the late Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami. (The cinematographer of White Snow is Morchhale's favorite lensman Iranian Mohammad Reza Jahapanah.) The imprisoned Ameer does not reappear in the film. Ameer's mother, Fatima (Madhu Kandhari), who had not shown any interest thus far in her son's film or of his dream to be a filmmaker, suddenly takes it on herself to make a solo effort to show her son's film by trekking to far away places in rural Ladakh. From the tale that presented misplaced religious fervor and over-zealous police officials curbing an innocent film presenting reality, the film transforms into a road journey of a single mother taking on herself an incredible perseverance to show the banned short film, based on her own life, in distant villages of Ladakh she had never visited before. She borrows a cathode-ray TV and related equipment to screen her son's short film captured on a DVD--materials all loaded on a beautiful, domesticated yak. (Morchhale's yak is beautiful compared to the yak in the 2019 Bhutanese film Lunana-a Yak in the Classroom.)
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| Ameer's mother treks through Ladakh's countryside with her domesticated yak loaded with a cathode-tube TV and other materials required to show her son's film, using a DVD copy |
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| Sometimes there is an audience but no electricity |
What Morchhale has done in the beautiful second half of White Snow would make any fervent filmgoer recall a 1977 Canadian feature film classic J.A. Martin, photographe, screened at the1978 Filmotsav (Film Festival) in Madras (now Chennai). In the Canadian film, J.A. Martin, an ardent still-photographer would leave his family home and set-off each year alone on a horse-driven wagon, early in the 20th century, carrying his photographic equipment to take still pictures of these families living in desolate spots of Canada. Those families would treasure Martin's photographs. Martin reminds one of Morchhale's Ameer, who also is passionate, not on photography, but on filmmaking, though a century and several continents separate the two fictional characters. In the Canadian film, Martin's wife who never shared her husband's passion before, one fine year decides to join her husband on his travels and it opens her eyes to her husband's interest in still photography and the immense gratitude of families he met in far away places for taking their family photographs. Martin's wife is comparable to Ameer's mother, also travelling to far away places experiencing the love of strangers, who see their own parallel experiences in life in Ameer's short film and exude gratitude for having watched the short film. Both Martin's wife and Ameer's mother recognize the power of visual arts in their journeys to far away places and meeting strangers--a wife comes closer to her husband and a mother comes closer to her imprisoned son. The Canadian film swept most of the national Canadian film awards of 1977 and won the Best Actress award and the Ecumenical Jury award at Cannes that year.
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| Ameer's mother's feeble attempt at publicizing her son's film on the road |
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| Ameer's mother Fatima (Madhu Kandhari) figuring out ways to show her son's film |
The most important departure for Morchhale in White Snow is its ending. Morchhale's previous works spoon-fed its audiences with simple narratives. The end sequence in White Snow with a police jeep, the family yak of Ameer stranded alone on a river bridge, and Ameer's mother missing from camera view forces the viewer to think and figure out the film's end for oneself.
P.S. Several films of Praveen Morchhale have been reviewed on this blog: Widow of Silence (2018); Walking with the Wind (2017); and Barefoot to Goa (2013). These can be accessed by clicking on their names in this post-script. The Canadian classic film J.A. Martin, photographe (1977) can be accessed on the National Film Board of Canada website by clicking on its name in this post-script.
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