Directed by Shamim Sarif, The World Unseen, to many may not strike as anything extraordinary. In fact some may even find it a lot on the lines of Deepa Mehta’s Fire (1996). It’s your typical male dominated society’s bias towards women. Where marriage equals slavery, husband equals torturer and wife, the victim.
Yet I found myself glued to the screen. I had tears rolling down at every possible jerk. And my heart skipped a beat at the slightest hint of intimacy. Now I don’t really know if the credit should be given to the screen play, the director or the leading set of ladies (Sheetal Seth & Lisa Ray) or was it just my screwed up mind.
I happened to watch this film after a mind-numbing break up. Having tired myself with an overdose of Will & Grace, I guess I needed something melodramatic…something filmy. And The World Unseen in many ways fits the bill quite well.
The acting department in all honesty isn’t all that rocking. Sheetal Seth is decent while Lisa Ray is only just bearable. No offence and I love these two women to death but their chemistry went full bloom only with their next release I Can’t Think Straight. As for side actors, well they were strictly ‘okayish’. The only one I couldn’t stand was the villainous husband aka Parvin Dabas and let me tell you, his character is not to be blamed here.
Summing it all up; The World Unseen is not to be seen by those who don’t prefer slow paced rona-dhona (cranky). But if you are the filmy type, or (like in my case, then) have just undergone a traumatic breakup, this film may just be what the doctor ordered.
