The Calf Doll

The Calf Doll is the docufiction debut of Indian director Ankur Hooda. Set in a smog-choked village in Haryana, a retired professor (Mst. Satbir Singh Hooda) turns to an age-old calf-doll ritual after his only cow delivers a stillborn calf and falls ill, as rapid industrialisation and urban migration close in on his rural life.

Part of India’s slow cinema movement, Parallel cinema, it marks a distinctive new voice. The film is meditative and hyper-observational, focusing on stark social realism and humanistic storytelling over the mainstream Bollywood formula. It features Hooda’s grandparents (Satbir and Chameli Devi) playing improvised versions of themselves, observing fog-cloaked landscapes and its people with a keen, anthropological eye. The acting was subtle yet devastatingly real, the desperation growing in the professor as the plot marches on. The highlight of the film is undoubtedly the cinematography, with breathtakingly beautiful shots interspersed throughout. Hooda uses nature to his advantage, with the lush greenery of the farmland contrasting the grey of the smog serving as a visual reminder of industrialisation and rural decay. The gloom acts as a direct metaphor for the slow, suffocating rural erasure and decline of the provincial underclass left behind However, I do feel the film sometimes lost sight of its message, especially during a segment filmed on an iPhone. It altered the aspect ratio and undercut the solemnity, ultimately taking the audience out of the world created. 

Throughout there were moments of brilliance, where the themes of exploitation and globalisation were obvious without being laboured, but I just wish it could’ve been more consistent.