Suparna Thombare
Mumbai, 14 Oct 2017 18:02 IST
Prateek Vats's documentary is more of a sensitive portrait of an ageing man than a glorious look at one of India's most famous bodybuilders.
A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings opens with a close-up of the wrinkled skin of a very old man. From the outset it is clear that this is an intimate human portrait.
The 72-minute film is not a documentary that exemplifies the achievements of a one-time celebrity. Instead, it follows an old man who is living out the last days of his life, far removed from the life he had led as a celebrated bodybuilder in the 1950s and 1960s.
Unlike a lot of mainstream sports biopics in Hindi cinema that focus on the rise of a star, Prateek Vats's documentary chooses to depict the not-so-glorious, imperfect and fragile last days of a hero.
The documentary follows Mr Universe 1952 title winner Manohar Aich through the ages of 102 and 103. The filmmakers enter straight in and place their camera inside the Kolkata home of Aich, unveiling the story of the bodybuilder through the mundane happenings of daily life.
The glory days of the diminutive Aich (he was all of 4'11" tall), known as Pocket Hercules in his prime, arejust touched upon with the presence of trophies — showcased in a room — and Aich speaking about the legendary American bodybuilder John C Grimek as being "the best one". Some old Doordarshan footage from 1980s and 1990s is also thrown in.
Right at the beginning Aich, who was born in Comilla, now in Bangladesh, on 17 March 1912, declares that he doesn't remember anything and whatever memories he has left are mixed up. Stoic, he nods his head to most questions by the filmmaker and family members while appearing not to comprehend the rest. You learn more about him through testaments from his two sons and daughter, and the way they interact with their father.
But as we move forward we see the not-so-privileged life his children are living despite their father's one-time stardom. Aich was only the second Indian to be crowned Mr Universe in any class, way back in 1952. Curiously, the first was also a Bengali, Monotosh Roy, in 1951.
Despite Aich winning the exalted laurel, we see that his daughter, who is battling liver cirrhosis herself, struggles to take care of the old man. She also touches upon how the government has completely forgotten him and no accolades, not even a Padma Shri, have come his way.
The sons, despite their love for the father, seem bitter that while he did great work as a bodybuilder, he did not spend enough time with them when they were young. Towards the end, there is even a hint of emotional violence from the sons who seem frustrated about having to care for a father whose mind is failing while the body is still quite intact for his age.
Director Vats seems to have chosen to leave out a lot of the emotional and verbal violence and the sensitive family moments from the final cut.
Despite that, the documentary does manage to successfully portray the fragility of the human body and mind through the story of a man whose existence and glory was based entirely on his physical conditioning.
While Aich remains mostly unreadable through the documentary, it is at the very end that he reveals that he still comprehends emotion. He also acknowledges the filmmakers' presence, asking them repeatedly when they would be back, revealing how much he enjoys the spotlight even at 103.
The analogy to Gabriel Garcia Marquez's short story of the same name is indeed the spirit of this documentary — the waning health and image of an old man once hailed as a hero — a symbol of human endurance and strength. And like in Marquez's story, people still do turn up every now and then to catch a glimpse of Aich, sometimes at his birthday party and other times at fitness contests, to click his pictures as he obliges them by flexing his muscles.
But inside the confines of his home, he is just a frail old man living out the last days of his life.
Aich passed away on 5 June 2016, at 104. Vats's documentary is more of a sensitive portrait of an ageing man than a glorious look at one of India's most famous bodybuilders and his achievements.
A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings was screened at the 19th MAMI Mumbai Film Festival on 14 October 2017.