Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Photograph’ on Amazon Prime, a Romantic Drama That’s Too Understated for Its Own Good

The premise for Amazon Prime movie Photograph sounds like a wacky comedy: a photographer, pressured by his grandmother to get married, passes off a stranger in a photo as his new fiancee — and then talks her into playing the role. But that’s not at all the intent of filmmaker Ritesh Batra, who explores understated romantic-drama territory similar to his well-received 2013 breakout, The Lunchbox.

PHOTOGRAPH: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Every day, Rafi (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) situates himself near Mumbai’s picturesque Gateway of India, pitching real-time photo portraits to passersby. Miloni (Sanya Malhotra) is an accounting student who agrees to purchase a picture. We soon learn they’re both quiet, withdrawn individuals. She lives at home with her middle-class family, and confides in their housekeeper; he sleeps in a cramped, dimly lit collective space with several other men, who drink, chat and poke fun at each other like close friends.

Rafi’s elderly grandmother, however, is a meddlesome traditionalist: Dadi (Farrukh Jafar) vows to stop taking her medication until he gets married. He sends her a photo of Miloni, passing her off as his betrothed — but faces a significant hurdle when she comes for a visit, with every intention of meeting her. After some light stalking, Rafi finds Miloni and convinces her to fulfill the ruse. Days go by, and they begin spending time together even when Dadi isn’t around. Are they falling in love?

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Miloni and Rafi share the sense of alienation that brings together Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson’s characters in Lost in Translation. Photograph also draws from the type of Victorian-era period pieces in which potential lovers clearly have feelings for each other but are absolutely terrified to break from social mores and express a sliver of emotion.

Performance Worth Watching: Jafar is expressive and colorful, an exercise in contrast to Siddiqui and Malhotra’s subdued performances. She isn’t just a crazy old woman cliche, though; the character is a complex blend of wisdom and cultural tradition, and gives the film some vitality.

Memorable Dialogue: “Years from now, when you look at this photo, you’ll feel the sun on your face, the wind in your hair and hear these voices again… or it’ll all be gone” is Rafi’s sincere, poignant sales pitch.

Single Best Shot: Batra holds on a medium-closeup of Malhotra resting her head on the rail of a ferryboat, with the skyline in the background; the wind blows her curls, and she closes her eyes and feels the sun on her face. It’s a nice, quiet, beautiful moment.

Sex and Skin: This is the type of movie where one brief touching-of-hands feels like a bursting dam of pent-up lust. So, none.

Our Take: What’s going on behind the eyes of Rafi and Miloni, who so often appear to be lost in thought? I have no idea. There’s a fine line between being a tantalizing mystery and an utter blank, and these characters just don’t reveal enough of themselves to draw us in. Their long stares into the middle distance inspire a desire for a thunderclap, an earthquake, a scud missile attack, something to shake them from their empty navel-gazing.

Batra loads all the film’s storytelling detail into the setting — he clearly wants us to interpret these people as products of their environment: Miloni’s housekeeper spreads her bedroll on the kitchen floor every night, an illustration of social class. Dadi piles into the single room where Rafi sleeps in bunks with his roommates, one of whom keenly scuttles away the old woman’s interruptive chattering where Rafi fails, so they can get some rest.

These are nice moments, suggestive and rooted in character, but they’re couched in the wearying repetition of Rafi and Miloni’s lives, which fails to be dramatically compelling. The sparse minor-key piano score underlines these moments with a melancholy refrain repeated so often, it becomes comical. Photograph fills us with yearning where its characters apparently have none — and are incapable of sharing a conversation that isn’t frustratingly inexpressive.

Our Call: SKIP IT. The cinematography is beautiful and the setting is intricately realized, but it’s unfocused in intent, and the characters are ultimately impenetrable.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Stream Photograph on Amazon Prime