It's fair to calibrate expectations for a smaller-budget independent film, but Country of Blind's problems aren't really a matter of limited finances, with one glaring exception.
Writer-director Rahhat Shah Kazmi's update of H. G. Wells' 1904 short story “The Land of the Blind” moves the action from the mountains of Ecuador to the Himalayas. In ancient India, a narrated voiceover explains, a tribe fled a war to the safety of a hidden valley. Shortly after their arrival, a mysterious illness caused people to lose their sight and babies to be born blind. An avalanche cut off the valley's access to the outside world and the tribe was forgotten in history.
Director: Rahhat Shah Kazmi
Writer: Rahhat Shah Kazmi
Stars: Hina Khan, Shoib Nikash Shah, Ahmer Haider
In the 18th century, Indian mountaineer Abhimanyu (Shoib Nikash Shah) leads his European friends to an unexplored peak. He slips and falls, falling into the hidden valley. Without equipment to climb back up the mountain, he heads into the valley to find a way out. There he meets the descendants of that ancient tribe, who have been totally blind for generations.
Abhimanyu quickly disabuses himself of the idea that his ability to see will grant him special privileges among the tribe. He can't even explain the concept of sight to them, since none of them have ever experienced it. Furthermore, he is so bad at adapting to his blind ways of life that he is treated like a clumsy child.
The tribe's adaptations should be the highlight of the film, but the few that are shown are rudimentary or contradictory. They developed a system of paths made of different materials to convey meaning to the walker based on texture (cool!), but the main path is made of round grapefruit-sized cobblestones that must be walked slowly to avoid slipping (huh?). ?). Furthermore, the people of the valley work over open flames without tying up their long hair.
The only reason these dubiously safe scenarios can be used in the film is because none of the actors in the main cast are blind (as far as I know). In long shots with many extras, it is possible to see some extras looking towards the uneven cobblestone path to avoid losing their balance.
While Abhimanyu is initially eager to return to civilization, he hesitates when he meets a beautiful woman named Gosha (Hina Khan). Of course, he only likes her appearance, which is only important to him because she can see. Country of Blind explores this in an interesting way that ultimately makes the film more of a parable than the original tale.
While the acting is generally quite good, the actors are not responsible for conveying large parts of the story, it is delegated to the voice-over narrator. The compact plot is complete with flashbacks to things that happened earlier in the film and shots of Abhimanyu simply looking around him. These are not problems of limited finances but of editing and organization of the script.
The only place where the producers clearly cut corners is in the film's English subtitles, which are riddled with misspellings and grammatical errors. In addition to being distracting, they're bad enough to be confusing at points. Any non-Hindi speaker interested in watching Country of Blind can wait to see the film picked up by one of the major streaming services, which typically resubtitles films before releasing them on their platforms.
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