Barriers In Disco Dancer
“Maa chor, beta chor”, chant a chorus of Mumbai street-children as they tail a mother in a white sari, Radha, and her small son, Anil. Radha protectively pushes Anil infront of her as they walk home purposefully. En route, Anil threatens to throw a rock at a heckler, but Radha prevents this and pulls Anil along. After they enter their home, Radha starts crying. Anil, moved by this, grabs a knife and threatens to cut out each of the slanderers’ tongues. Radha calms him down. Suddenly, in the next shot, we are taken to a pleasant scene in Goa, where we are introduced to a handsome young man singing at a Christian wedding. This is no other than Anil, but as an adult.
This scene occurs at a critical juncture in the film “Disco Dancer”. It serves …show more content…
The camera match cuts to another frame where Anil walks to grab a knife. But now there are no barriers! The lack of barriers shows that we are slowly being exposed to Anil’s private personality. He breaks the facade of a child who needs to be protected and won’t be complacent and let his mother suffer.Anil walks from the left to the right side of the frame before returning to the center with the knife and pausing. This shot is interesting because it shows the knife, not Anil, as the focal piece. In contrast, a continuous tracking shot captures Anil is walking back towards his mother, keeping Anil at the center of the screen throughout the shot. This continuity connects the bottled anger symbolized by the knife to Anil’s personal wish to protect his mother by returning to her. At this point, Anil thinks the way of avenging the insult to his mother is by violence, like with a knife. He ends his walk under the picture of Krishna, where his mother meets him. The tracking shot captures a change in lighting, from the kitchen, which is darker, to the entrance, where the primary lighting angle is different than the start of the scene as shown by the new shadows on the walls. This pulls attention to Radha’s important dialogue that there is no need for bloodshed and it only matters that Anil knows she didn’t
This scene occurs at a critical juncture in the film “Disco Dancer”. It serves …show more content…
The camera match cuts to another frame where Anil walks to grab a knife. But now there are no barriers! The lack of barriers shows that we are slowly being exposed to Anil’s private personality. He breaks the facade of a child who needs to be protected and won’t be complacent and let his mother suffer.Anil walks from the left to the right side of the frame before returning to the center with the knife and pausing. This shot is interesting because it shows the knife, not Anil, as the focal piece. In contrast, a continuous tracking shot captures Anil is walking back towards his mother, keeping Anil at the center of the screen throughout the shot. This continuity connects the bottled anger symbolized by the knife to Anil’s personal wish to protect his mother by returning to her. At this point, Anil thinks the way of avenging the insult to his mother is by violence, like with a knife. He ends his walk under the picture of Krishna, where his mother meets him. The tracking shot captures a change in lighting, from the kitchen, which is darker, to the entrance, where the primary lighting angle is different than the start of the scene as shown by the new shadows on the walls. This pulls attention to Radha’s important dialogue that there is no need for bloodshed and it only matters that Anil knows she didn’t