Thursday, July 26, 2018

PATTON - learning about America and its colorful language!


It was after return from a few weeks trip to New Delhi, where my grandparents and other relatives lived, that I watched this movie in a theater in Mumbai. I was alone and the summer heat outside made the air conditioned theater look so pleasant. [ I was in high school or early college.]

The blunt words of general Patton on the screen covered with a large American flag were so inspiring at the time that I got engrossed in the movie. Not even  my grandfather was allowed to be that loud and blunt in our extended family! 

I may not agree with everything that George C Scott says as Patton but I understand that those words were meant to inspire an American audience! I should probably watch this movie again to comprehend the politics and history of the time.


Monday, July 23, 2018

MAUSAM - Bollywood touched an ' untouchable' story !!

Mausam means season! So why did the filmmaker give the movie that name? Like the changing of the seasons, the 'kids' are the reminder of and recurrence of the past!! [That is my best guess, you see!] I saw this movie about the same time as I saw the movie in the previous post 'Charitraheen'! And the main actors are the same. Sanjeev Kumar and Sharmila Tagore.]

A medical student falls in love with a pretty lady when visiting a hill-station in Northern India. He leaves her pregnant and returns to Mumbai. There he accidentally kills a patient and is in jail for a few years. Meanwhile, the lady in the hill station awaits his return so they can marry and start a family. Years pass and she goes crazy when he does not return and becomes a mental patient. She does have a baby.


Twenty five years later, the doctor, now old and rich because of the pharma company he owns, returns to the hill station to rest and look for the lady from his youth. He talks to the locals and gets only tit bits of her whereabouts. Nobody knows where she she vanished. Then as he is purchasing a pain killer at a roadside chemist he sees a young woman kick a man out of the poor man's brothel. Her language is very rough. [Bollywood rules at the time did not allow such 'abusive' language on the screen.] The doctor is shocked to see her resemblance to his lady love from his youth. But this brothel lady is very young! How can that be ?

He walks into the brothel and requests for that lady he just saw. The lady answers that she is only available for business. He is embarrassed and walks out. But he is back couple of days later now worried about the well being of the lady !! He offers her madam the money she demands and brings the lady home for a few days. He asks her to dispose off her cheap clothes and makeup and buys her new saris appropriate for decent people!

The lady from the brothel falls in love with the old man. She confesses this to a friend and says now I want to be a mom. 'I have never felt like that before!' she says. She tries to kiss the old man. The old man gets enraged and throws her out of the house. 'Your thinking is never going to change. I am trying to rescue from the gutter but that is where you belong' ! 

So what is going on ? Why will the old man not allow the young lady, whom he 'procured' from the brothel, to get close to him ?

The answer is that the old man realizes almost as soon as he sees her that she might be his daughter. But he is reluctant to reveal that until he is sure of her opinion about him! She tells him that she wants to kill the guy who left her mother 25 years ago to bear the child all alone! She does not know he is her dad at the time.

But in the end she realizes that the old man is her dad and she has an old picture to confirm it. Now they are reconciled !!

[Young And The Restless - you may include this in your story line asap - yes, you must!!]

Thursday, July 12, 2018

CHARITRAHEEN - A movie with a lot of Character!

Charitraheen means characterless. The hero is addressed as being characterless couple of times in the movies. But he is not. He falls in love with a pretty lady but his Hindu orthodox mother rejects the girl and sends her away without her son's permission. What could he do ? In a Hindu joint family system sons and daughters have to comply with the wishes of the elders of the family ! The hero is then married to another lady by the family and they have a peaceful existence. Almost, because there is that traditional villain who is his wife's brother. Our trusting hero hands over running the accounting part of this villain and looses everything !

Dejected he visits the local bar for a drink and a lady asks him to light her cigarette! He notices the strong resemblance to his friend from the yore, Ramma. His first love. But she exists as a club dancer now named Rosy. And she is very popular, you see. Our hero asks her ' Are you Ramma ? ' ' Ramma is dead. I am Rosy !' she replies with a sympathetic expression on her face. 



However, he gets the real answer from the club song that follows:

'Your and my friendship is very old;
You are right, I am that girl of your dreams;
Many monsoons have come and gone (since we met);
I am that forgotten story in your life!'

What is so special of about this movie ? 
It is sharp turn of a crying and sobbing heroine of Bollywood movies to a brave lady who survives any way she can ! Sharmila Tagore the actress who plays Ramma displays her vampish charm in the song (see the clip from Youtube) for the first time in her career.

It is a story of the acceptance of characters who do not fit into the traditional mold designed by the local societies and so are addressed as Charitraheen!

I remember watching this movie for the first time on the big screen in Mumbai when I was in school . [I wish it had a little more technical sophistication]. It seemed impressive on the big screen.

Saturday, July 7, 2018

Those Award Winners of The Past - Display of Perversion !


I can't believe that these movies won not only Oscars but also Cannes !

I recently browsed thru the DVD of Mulholland Drive. The movie seems dated and ....I can't say much more without getting into trouble. It is technically pre-historic compared to the current movies. It won a Cannes if you believe the jacket !!!! It might be one of the earliest attempt by American filmmakers to expose the audience to decaying human bodies among other things. If I have enough patience I might watch it fully in the future.

How about Monster. This movie won an Oscar. I remember watching it just after it had become public on VHS. Is this kind of brutality real ?Is this America ?

Then there is Monster's Ball. This movie is about the relationship between a black girl and a white 'owner' and the gradual development of physical attraction between the two. The 'condescending' and hateful remarks the old father makes are shocking ! It is almost porn disguised as an intelligent movie presumably exploring America's past history of racism!! This movie won an Oscar too!


Why are the filmmakers bent upon betraying our trust in humanity and making us paranoid ?