Serious Men

Sudhir Mishra's 2020 Indian film adapts Manu Joseph's novel of the same name. Ayyan Mani, an assistant at a scientific institute in Mumbai, hates the place caste and class have assigned him; he invents a myth that his son is a genius and starts inflating it through the media and politics. The satire spares no one: the scientific establishment, politicians, the media and the father himself are all part of the same arrangement. Nawazuddin Siddiqui's performance is at the centre and refuses to make the character sympathetic; Ayyan is both right and destructive. Caste is rarely treated this sharply in mainstream Indian cinema. The weakness is a final section that turns toward emotional reconciliation; the novel ended somewhere crueller. Who it's for: viewers who like social satire, Indian cinema about caste and class, and Nawazuddin Siddiqui's work. Who it's not for: anyone wanting a resolution that soothes the discomfort of a child being used, or who dislikes the coldness of satire.