‘Fire In The Mountains’: Belfast Review

Dir/scr: Ajitpal Singh. India. 2021. 83 mins.

India’s boast of prosperity and progress for all has little meaning for a struggling family in the foothills of the Himalayas. Ajitpal Singh’s accomplished debut feature Fire In The Mountains addresses the contradictions and complexities of modern India through a warmhearted but unsentimental portrait of one family. The engaging characters, beautiful landscapes and confident storytelling all contribute to an appealing film that will continue to win friends and supporters long after its Sundance debut. 

Makes you eager to see what Singh might achieve next

Fire In The Mountains is set in the Munsiyari region of Uttarakhand in northern India. Cinematographer Dominique Colin captures the natural beauty of an area lush in vegetation and forest and blessed by stunning views of mountain ranges. He combines that with interiors bathed in a golden glow and filled with vibrant colours. The family wardrobe favours bold reds and bright blues in clothes that provide some cheer amidst domestic tensions.

Chandra (an impressive Vinamrata Rai) and her husband Dharam (Chandan Bisht) run the Swizerland Homestay, an inn perched at the top of a mountain road. It provides a small source of income to support themselves, two children and Dharam’s widowed sister. There is a stark contrast between the husband and wife. Chandra “works like a mule” and she appears to be in constant movement as she carries water, knits, cooks and competes for tourists with rates that barely provide her with a profit. Dharam is a feckless drunk who schemes, dreams and disappoints as he half-heartedly pursues money-making plans for raising chickens or selling fresh vegetables grown in his dilapidated greenhouse. He also tries to assert the authority he considers his natural male birthright.

Her focus is very much on their son Pakrash (Sonal Jha), who uses a wheelchair and whose recent inability to walk has left doctors baffled. Chandra carries the boy down the mountain for his medical appointments and does whatever she can to pay the bills. She also lobbies for the long-delayed construction of a local road that would considerably ease her burdens. Dharam puts his faith in more traditional methods, consulting a guru and begging to use their money for a Jagar ceremony that might appease an angry deity.

Part of the appeal of Fire In The Mountains is the way it slowly shifts our sympathies between the characters. Instinctively, we are drawn to Chandra and everything she does for her son. Gradually, we gain a more complex understanding of the situation. Our perception of her entirely admirable stance changes slightly as Singh draws out the humanity of the other characters.

Singh packs a lot into a brief running time as he comments on the tensions between modern and traditional, rural and urban, whilst also exposing corruption in the political system and the expectations around gender roles that are already starting to make life impossible for the studious, TikTok-obsessed daughter Kanchan (Harshita Tewari). The film makes some of these points in radio broadcasts, allowing us to hear news of India’s space programme and growing wealth, whilst Chandra continues to stagger up the mountain with the backbreaking task of transporting water to her family. Singh constantly underlines the ironies and realities for Indian families living far from city centres.

In its best moments, Fire In The Mountains is an inviting depiction of family ties that ranges across hardships and conflicts to affection and love. There is an echo of some John Ford classics, or similar family portraits to be found in the films of Satyajit Ray or Hirokazu Kore-eda. Singh’s skills lie in showing both sides of a rosy picture, including the good intentions gone wrong, the acts of betrayal and the boiling resentment that seethes below a calm surface.

Some characters may drift out of focus and the ending may leave questions unanswered, but Fire In The Mountains makes you eager to see what Singh might achieve next.