Managed to catch a few films at the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF).
Slumdog Millionaire was impressive with good plot, with script written by
Simony Beaufoy from the novel Q&A by Vikas Swarup), intelligent direction by
Danny Boyle and great cinematogrphy by Anthony Dod Mantel. Newcomer Dev Patel
triumphs in his role as Jamal and his co-star, also a newcomer, Freida Pinto
gets little scope to demonstrate her histronics. I am not sure if
producerswould jump to sign her on given her limited role as a moll, playing
the part of a grown-up Latika, the third slum kid in the story. She appears in
very few scences. Frieda shows her forte in the concluding shot of a dance at
the VT station (which I found very frivolous, but probably done to give it a
Bollywood touch), and in another dancing scene earlier on.
Since the movie has made waves in international circles, including winning the
People's Choice Award in Canada, I assume everyone is familiar with the movie's
theme and story.
The other Indian films I watched was Deepa Mehta's Heaven on Earth. I think the
title vaguely means that Canada is "heaven" for the central character in the
film, Preity Zinta (Chand) when she excepts a marriage proposal to become the
wife of a Punjabi Canadian. Her dream of heaven is shattered when she finds
that her husband is unemployed and a wife-beater. He is portrayed as
psychologically unstable person.
In the larger context, Deepa has tackled the nagging issue of domestic violence
in the Punjabi community. It is very widespread in this community than in any
other Indian community in Canada, according to statistics available with NGOs
dealing with women issues. It also drives home the point that prospective
brides back in India must first find out the background of the husbands-to-be
in order to save the Chand's fate.
There is a touch of "magical realism" in the film, a cobra appearing in the
backyard of the family home. I read the film won an award somewhere for the
best screenplay, but I found it run-of-the-mill and the subject a bit worn-out.
A couple of films have tackled such burning issues as love between a boy and
girl belonging to different social strata (I forget the film's name. It was
based on a Canadian Punjabi girl who falls in love with a rickshaw driver on
her holidays in Punjab and the girl was ordered killed by her family in what
is known as "honour-killing) and the film Provoked, based on the true story of
a Punjabi woman in Britain. Aishwarya Rai plays the lead role with Nandita Das
in the supporting role.
Talking of Nandita, I could not get to see her Firaaq (her first directorial
movie), based on post-Gujarat riots, as I chose to watch Che, a four-and-half
hour long biopic on the legendary revolutionary. However, I got to see her in
Ramchand Pakistani, a movie based on the travails and hardships of a Pakistan
Hindu Dalit boy and his father who get locked up in a jail in Indian territory.
The boy (I think seven years old) strays into the Indian territory from his
village near the border and is picked up by Indian security forces. His father
goes in search of him and he too gets picked up and locked. They spend five
years in jail.
Nandita plays the mother, a very subdued role for an actor of great talent.
She, however, disclosed that she took on the role because of her friendship
with the director Mehreen Jabbar. As I walked out of the theatre, Nandita just
came to me with a camera in hand and asked me to click a photo of her along
with Sanjay Suri, the Firaaq actor, and a group of fans. I obliged. No, I do
not know her.
Watching the Bengali movie, Ek Nadir Galpo (Tale of a River), was riveting. I
went to see as I have liked reading Sunio Gangopadhya's short stories. Mithun
Chakraborty, the former dancing star of Bollywood, gives a good performance as
father of the girl, on who the story revolves. The beautiful daughter and her
younger brother that Mithun, a postmaster, raises as a single parent is raped
and murdered. Her body is found in the river. He makes his mission to get the
river's name Khaleji to her daughter's name Anjana who, as a growing up kid on
the river's banks makes fun of the river's name.
However, the movie I best enjoyed for entertainment was Sita Sings the Blues,
an animated movie. It's a take-off on the Ramayana, the Hindu epic tale, and
Ram, the Hindu god, is made to look like Apu, the Indian character from the TV
comedy, The Simpsons. It was funny indeed. I doubt if this Hollywood flick will
be shown in India. The jazz singing is good as it takes you to the early roots
of blues. It is a mixture of modern failed relationship and the trouble Ram and
Sita relationship.
The film has won awards at the Berlin and Denver film festivals, and the
director Nina Paley has been hailed for her first feature-length film. The film
is said to be partly based on Paley's own life. Her husband left America for
India and then abandons her.
Eugene
