Eeb Allay Ooo!

Eeb Allay Ooo! is a 2019 Indian comedy drama film, directed by Prateek Vats, in his directorial debut, and written by Shubham. The film revolves around a young migrant in New Delhi, who scores the unusual government job of keeping monkeys away from public buildings, and focuses on his ensuing struggles and disillusionment with the work. The title is somewhat onomatopoeiac, as it derives from the three distinct sounds used by an experienced monkey chaser in the film to scare away the rhesus macaques.

Eeb Allay Ooo!
Film poster
Directed byPrateek Vats
Produced byAnurag Kashyap
Shwetaabh Singh
NaMaProductions
Written byShubham
Starring
  • Shardul Bharadwaj
  • Mahender Nath
  • Nutan Sinha
Music byAnshul Takkar
CinematographySaumyananda Sahi
Edited byTanushree Das
Release date
  • October 2019 (2019-10) (Pingyao)
Running time
97 minutes
CountryIndia
LanguageHindi

Eeb Allay Ooo! premiered at the 2019 Pingyao International Film Festival. In 2020, the film was selected for the 70th Berlin International Film Festival and was screened as part of the We Are One: A Global Film Festival.

Plot

Anjani hails from a migrant family and lives with her pregnant sister and brother-in-law on the outskirts of Delhi. He is a newbie in the capital's monkey repeller squad, which helps in keeping the monkeys away from tourists and government buildings, but without harming them.[1]

Cast
  • Shardul Bharadwaj as Anjani Prasad
  • Mahender Nath as Mahender
  • Nutan Sinha as Anjani's sister
  • Shashi Bhushan as Anjani's brother-in-law
  • Nitin Goel as Narayan/Contractor
  • Naina Sareen as Kumudh

Production

Development

The idea of the film came to Vats after he read a news report on how under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, langurs could no longer be used to scare away monkeys at the Rashtrapati Bhawan, which is the seat of central governance and bureaucracy, and how consequently authorities had employed people to dress up as langurs and imitate them to drive away the monkeys, who often caused nuisance.[2]

Vats said in an interview in The Times of India: "What we wanted to comment on was contractual jobs. The central character, Anjani, chases monkeys and through him (and others), we tell the story of people who make our cities, our houses, what they are, but remain invisible...Today, we are saying that migrant labourers have been given shabby treatment, but it doesn't really come as a surprise. There are many other examples. In 2010, during the Commonwealth Games, the slums were literally hidden, and those who live in those slums are people who built our cities."[3]

In an interview in The Hindu, Vats said: "I was wondering whether to make a documentary or a mockumentary, but as we got into it, we decided to make it like an absurd fiction while keeping it very real, because only then would the absurdity work...While outwardly a satire, I hope the film is true to the internal complexities."[4]

Filming

The filming was done in about 60 days in 2018.[3] For the scenes featuring the monkey menace, the crew often had to wait for days to get the desired reactions from the monkeys, and throughout filming, there was a veterinarian on set.[3]

Release

The film received its world premiere at the Pingyao International Film Festival, China in 2019, and then premiered in India at the Mumbai Film Festival.[4][2] In 2020, it featured in the We Are One: A Global Film Festival.[3]

Critical reception

The film has been critically acclaimed. As of July 2020, the film holds a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on six reviews with an average rating of 7.5/10.[5]

Jay Weissberg of Variety said about the central performance and direction: "Bhardwaj captures the right mix of wounded pride, annoyance and exasperation, building up Anjani’s energy until his clowning temporarily liberates the character from the humiliation. Much to his credit, Vats treats the real rhesus wranglers such as Mahinder with dignity and respect: when attempted by an amateur, the job seems silly, but in the hands of those trained to scare off the monkeys, the work becomes a necessary public service, done with aplomb and humor."[6] Deborah Young of Hollywood Reporter praised the cinematography and the original score in her review: "Saumyananda Sahi’s eye-catching cinematography gives a keen sense of New Delhi’s ever-hazy atmosphere with its stately government buildings and chaotic but colorful backstreets where the characters live, while Anshul Takkar’s highly original score is based on sounds."[7]

Accolades

The film was selected for the Panorama section of the 70th Berlin International Film Festival in 2020.[8] At the Mumbai Film Festival, it won the Golden Gateway Award in the India Gold section.[9]

References
  1. Joshi, Namrata (May 29, 2020). "'Eeb Allay Ooo!' movie review: The kingdom of monkeys". The Hindu. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
  2. Gupta, Shubhra (20 October 2019). "Prateek Vats on his man-and-monkey tale that premiered in China and Jio MAMI". Retrieved 4 July 2020.
  3. Lal, Niharika (31 May 2020). "'Eeb Allay Ooo!' makers shot across Delhi for this social satire". The Times of India. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
  4. Joshi, Namrata (17 October 2019). "The human langurs of Delhi: on Prateek Vats' film, 'Eeb Allay Ooo'". The Hindu. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
  5. "Eeb Allay Ooo! (2019)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
  6. Weissberg, Jay (29 May 2020). "Film Review: 'Eeb Allay Ooo!'". Variety. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
  7. Young, Deborah (20 October 2019). "'Eeb Allay Ooo!': Film Review | Mumbai 2019". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
  8. "Eeb Allay Ooo!". Berlinale. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
  9. "Eeb Allay Ooo and Honeyland emerge top winners at MAMI 2019". Indian Express. 25 October 2019. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
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