Educational Media Reviews Online

Rajesh Shera’s debut feature, Ocean of an Old Man, is a deeply moving personal vision of the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that took the lives of over 230,000 people. Its haunting quality and exaltation of quiet and sadness will stay with viewers for days after an initial viewing. There is one shot which will always remain ingrained as iconic of the disaster: it is of the old man, a school teacher, standing on the rocks at the edge of the ocean looking out as the ocean recedes. The power of this image brings to mind the impact of the horror more acutely than having all the Hollywood special effects teams re-creating the water rushing in and destroying everything in its path. It is calm yet disquieting bringing forth all the emotions that the catastrophe continues to evoke.

This story of the schoolteacher who finds himself sadly taking attendance and realizing slowly how many of his students did not survive primarily unfolds in a series of visual styles. His overwhelming grief causes him to search for his missing students and the realization of their loss is simply devastating for him and for the audience. The cinematography is not easily forgotten: many scenes are shot in moonlight causing a surreal nether-like effect. I cannot remember ever seeing more evocative moon-lit cinematography and I watch 500-600 films a year. There are slight imperfections caused by shooting in that tropical environment. The distributor has rightly chosen not to correct them and to allow the viewer to be fully immersed in the requiem for the lives lost on the Andabar and Nicobar islands. The Global Lens Collection has once again selected a very worthwhile film for which they provide a discussion guide and a special feature interview with the lead actor, Tom Alter. Highly recommended for film studies, media studies, and Asian studies, as well as for anyone touched by the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.