Dir. Ramin Bahrani, US, 2005, 86 mins
Cast: Ahmad Razvi, Leticia Dolera, Farooq ‘Duke’ Muhammad, Arun Lal
Review by Jonathan Wilkins
Each morning, while the sun has still to rise, Ahmad (Razvi) leaves his cramped New York apartment, takes his large hand-drawn vending cart through the busy traffic to his chosen pitch and spends the day selling coffee and doughnuts.
In spite of being a hugely successful music star in his native Pakistan, a series of disasters, which started with the death of his wife, has left him chewed up and spit out by life, running errands and selling porn DVDs to put food on the table.
His son has been adopted by his wife's family and is beginning to forget who his actual father is and things get desperate for Ahmad. Then one of his customers recognises him as a singer and proposes to help him reignite his career in the US. Things seem to take a further turn for the better as he embarks on a warm friendship with Noemi (Dolera), a Spanish girl who works on a nearby newsstand. However anguish is always in the air during this unhurried, often moving, film.
Depicting an unashamedly authentic look at working life in New York, the film is a low-budget piece of social cinema that turns its limitations into its strengths, concentrating exclusively on the world of the characters and utilising a documentary style.
There is great emphasis placed on the intricacies of Ahmad's daily routine and his attempt to win self-respect, as well as the moments of humanity that are still in evidence, even in his lowly status. This is highlighted by his relationship with Noemi, and which subsequently develops in a manner that's convincing and deeply moving. Their scenes together are wonderfully played with subtle and restrained performances from Dolera and Razvi.
Razvi is excellent throughout, managing to convey a sense of despair without playing for the audience's sympathy and carrying the narrative perfectly, in spite of having only a nominal amount of dialogue.
Sadly, he is not given much support from other cast members who range from average down to near disastrous, but if you are charitable enough to ignore this, there is still plenty to admire, from a refreshingly truthful examination of the life of Pakistani immigrants in New York to the stilted friendship between Ahmad and Mohammad, who only wants to help as long as he can take advantage of Ahmad’s potential success in return.
In spite of a relatively brief running time, the gloomy atmosphere eventually becomes a bit too much to bear, culminating in a climax that's very obvious from early on and seems both sadistically and wilfully bitter. However, it still succeeds in making you care about these people who we pass everyday in the street and have their own, often compelling, stories to tell.
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